Expert warns poor broadband is making UK a second class country

Fibre strands
The fibre of our being

The UK could risk falling further behind other nations in the race to broadband deals utopia unless it pulls its finger out, an expert has warned.

Sounded at the Westminster eForum Superfast broadband seminar, Chris Marsden, Professor of Media Law at the University of Sussex, said that countries such as Kazakhstan would be "superior to the UK within 20 years" unless providers poured more money into infrastructure.

He said: "It's worrying. You can currently get a 2Gbps line in Hong Kong for $62 [per month]. With other countries going significantly faster and making bigger investments, we should be worried that we're becoming a second-class country. Investment from outside our borders will simply go elsewhere."

Broadband of brothers

If you're riding up the internet super highway in the slow lane, you're not alone, according to a new study ranking global broadband speeds.

Conducted by Ookla, the compiled list of speedtest.net rankings put the UK in 25th place, with an average download speed of 23.55Mbps. That was less than half of the 71.03Mbps achieved by world leader Hong Kong, and came in behind Singapore (52.85Mbps) and Romania (50.82Mbps). The US limped in at an even lowlier 31st with an average download speed of 20.77Mbps.

The UK government recently used its Autumn Statement to announce it would be providing £10 million to support a rural broadband roll out to help reach its target of 98% fibre-optic broadband coverage by 2018.

Kane Fulton
Kane has been fascinated by the endless possibilities of computers since first getting his hands on an Amiga 500+ back in 1991. These days he mostly lives in realm of VR, where he's working his way into the world Paddleball rankings in Rec Room.