Britain slumps in worldwide broadband speed chart

Britain is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to broadband internet speeds, according to a new report by Akamai.

Akamai's latest "State of the Internet" report puts the UK in 27th place, way behind countries such as Japan, South Korea and the US in terms of 'global average connection speeds'.

Asia leads the way

"Cities in Asia dominate the Global Average Connection speeds top 100 list," reads the report. "With 61 located in Japan, 12 more in South Korea, and Hong Kong.

"Fourteen cities from North America made it into the top 100, along with 12 cities in Europe," the report adds.

All of those European cities in the top 100 are in the Netherlands, Germany or Sweden. No UK cities made the cut. A damning indication of the state of British broadband.

Britain's broadband shame

The UK has an average broadband speed of 3.8Mbps, which is far less than the average speed reported by a recent Ofcom report which claimed that the average UK connection speed was 5.3Mbps.

This compares poorly with fast broadband nations such as South Korea which boasts the highest average connection speed of 12Mbps, and also recorded the highest average maximum connection speed of 33Mbps.

In terms of worldwide rankings, Hong Kong sits in second place with a 9Mbps average, closely followed by Japan. The US is only slightly better than the UK, languishing in 16th place with an average speed of 6.3Mbps.

Interestingly, sitting at fourth and fifth in the broadband speed chart are Romania and Latvia, both recording average speeds of 6.3Mbps.

Via Akamai's State of the Internet report [registration only]