Jeremy Corbyn, UK Has “slowest and most expensive broadband” in OECD

Politicians and their “facts” often give us a headache and today it’s the turn of the Labour Party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who claims that the United Kingdom has some of the “slowest and most expensive broadband” among the 35 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Certainly the United Kingdom has plenty of areas where broadband could be improved and Corbyn has even suggested some potential remedies (here). However the OECD’s own somewhat old and flaky data (here) appears to show that the UK fairs rather better than suggested in his comment, which is a thought being echoed by the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA).

James Blessing, Chair of the UK ISPA, said:

“Jeremy Corbyn is wrong to suggest that broadband in the UK performs poorly internationally. The OECD data clearly demonstrates that UK broadband penetration rates, prices and speeds rank highly among developed countries and the statistics have not yet recognised the significant investments from ISPA members, who use a range of technologies to deliver superfast connectivity.”

The latest EU Digital Progress Report 2016 (data from 2015) is probably a better source of comparative data between countries, albeit only for the EU. At present 71% of the EU can access an NGA broadband connection (90.5% in the UK) and this falls to just 28% in rural areas (47.4% in the UK). Plenty of room for improvement, but by no means the worst.