UK:How your broadband speed compares

bealtine

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/06/broadband-speeds-uk

Broadband: the slowest average maximum speeds were in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

Want to know the broadband speed in your area – and, just as important, how it compares to others? The communications regulator Ofcom on Wednesday released an interactive map revealing the variations of takeup and speed for fixed-line broadband around the UK.

You can see the map on the Guardian's site here or on Ofcom's site here.

The map shows 68% of UK homes and businesses now have a fixed broadband connection – excluding superfast broadband – with the average maximum speed of 7.5 Mbit/s. In theory, the fastest speed for first-generation broadband rolled out by BT from 2000 is 8Mbps. It has begun the rollout of a faster version, ADSL2+, which should be able to offer up to 24Mbps – though most people might not see a significant difference.

• The Western Isles – Na h-Eileanan an Iar – had the lowest takeup of fixed-line broadband at 46%.

• Brighton and Hove registers the highest broadband takeup, at 80%.

• Edinburgh has the fastest average speeds for fixed broadband at 10.1 Mbps with Bristol in second place at 9.9 Mbps

• The slowest average maximum speeds were in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, at 4.3 Mbps followed by Cookstown, at 4.4 Mbps.

• Northern Ireland had some of the longest average line lengths (from the exchange to the customer) in the UK, and this leads to lower broadband speeds.

The league table showed the city of Kingston-upon-Hull with the third-lowest takeup of fixed broadband at just 50% – a relatively low figure compared to similar sized cities in the UK, according to Ofcom.

Significantly, 14% of customers with fixed broadband connections (excluding superfast broadband connections) currently have speeds of less than 2 Mbps – the minimum that the government thinks is acceptable for broadband. Ofcom says some could get faster speeds by improving their in-home telephone wiring, and around 6% have the option to switch to a higher speed cable and fibre-based broadband service.

But the picture for superfast connections – of more than 40Mbps – is not encouraging. Ofcom says they make up less than 3% of total broadband connections. Principally those come from cable companies, notably Virgin, and are concentrated in urban areas. The government has made better superfast broadband provision a high priority, and set aside £530m – including some top-sliced from the BBC licence fee – to help achieve a target of 90% of businesses and homes able to get high-speed connections by 2015.

There is little sign though of that being achieved in short order. A number of companies have complained to Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, over the pricing regime that BT has instituted for letting them lay new fibre-optic cable using its poles and ducts in rural areas, where it is expensive to install new connections – unless they use BT's existing infrastructure for the phone network.

According to the figures, 58% of addresses are now in areas served by a superfast broadband enabled telephone exchange or cable network.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said the information would help individuals, businesses and the government: "Championing the provision of more information in this kind of area in my experience so far has invariably led to better outcomes."

lucernarian

That's a very strange study by OfCom. Northern Ireland simultaneously has the highest proportion of customers who can only get less than 2mbps with DSL yet also has the best "superfast broadband" availability in the UK (and ranked ahead of London!) I thought the bulk of next-generation services in NI were based on VDSL from local cabinets so is it a case that customers in NI simply aren't interested in very high speeds?