UK Ranks 27th out of 54 Countries for Average Broadband ISP Speed

Comparison site Compare the Market has updated an interesting comparison of 54 countries, which ranks each by their average broadband download speed, upload speed and monthly package price. Sadly the UK ranks just 27th for downloads (55.14Mbps), 39th for uploads (12.72Mbps) and 20th for price (£31.27).

The results are far from inspiring and predictably the “full fibre” (FTTP) dominated broadband markets of Singapore, Iceland and South Korea hold the tables top three spots (all were able to deliver “ultrafast broadband” speeds of above 100Mbps). On the flip side CtM’s Global Broadband Index page lacks any detail to explain their methodology, which is just one of several reasons why we’re taking it with a pinch of salt.

Judging by the performance scores we believe they’ve used some sort of speedtest based data, although the source of their data isn’t clarified (looks overly optimistic and that’s usually an Ookla trait). The problem here is that speedtest studies make for a poor gauge when considering the actual availability of faster networks.

For example, it’s currently estimated that around 96% of UK premises are within reach of a fixed “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) network and more than 55% should be able to access an “ultrafast” (100Mbps+) service; albeit mostly via Virgin Media for the latter. However speedtest based data is more a reflection of take-up and at present around 35-40% of premises still take an old / slow ADSL copper line broadband service, which tends to drag average scores down.

Lest we forget that lots of other problems can also skew results extracted from speedtests, such as slow WiFi, consumer package choice or local network congestion (e.g. running a speedtest at the same time as somebody else is downloading a big file). Likewise it’s unclear whether the data has split out the results from mobile and high capacity business lines.

On the other hand, if we assume that other countries face at least some of the same issues then the ranking remains a useful indicator of progress and take-up (provided it’s taken in the correct context).