Coming in at 47th in global broadband speed rankings, the U.K. vows to provide consumers with a gigabit speed network by 2025. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged in 2019, nearly $6 billion of funding to support services reaching the most remote parts of the U.K. The Guardian reported a combination of full-fiber and other super-fast technology will be used in Virgin Media’s cable and broadband network to achieve the goal.
An annual report published by Cable.co.uk, ranked the U.K.’s average broadband speed as the “eighth slowest in western Europe.”
“The U.K. is comparatively late in its rollout of pure fiber networks, which is causing it to stagnate while other nations gain ground,” said Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk.
The U.K.’s Office of Communication (Ofcom) confirmed these findings by reporting only about 10 percent of U.K. households with broadband, compared with above 80 percent in many developed countries. According to The Guardian, an annual broadband study ranking the average broadband speeds of 221 countries and territories showed Britain dropping 13 places in rank since last year.
Howdle said, “It is obviously easier to upgrade a country or territory to full-fiber the smaller it happens to be. However, the U.K. still finds itself a long way behind many nations of equal or greater size.”
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