ADSLGuide notes that the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) has issued a new report - 'Sophisticated broadband services', which compares the speed and coverage of UK broadband with other countries.

One of the first charts details the coverage (percentage of households) by service speed per country, with the UK placing 3rd. The most interesting thing about this is that it covers from 1Mbps to 8Mbps:

Country - 1Mbps . 2Mbps . 4Mbps . 8Mbps
South Korea - 97% . 95% . 92% . 86%
Japan - 94% . 93% . 90% . 84%
UK - 93% . 84% . 33% . 8%
Germany - 92% . 78% . 18% . 0%
Sweden - 90% . 90% . 71% . 71%

From the full graph, which can be seen in the main PDF document HERE, it is apparent that the UK does quite well until 4Mbps. Every other country is able to beat the UK's 4Mbps coverage except Germany (18%), Australia (32%) and Ireland (10%).

It's a similar situation for 8Mbps, although the cover for such high speed services varies to such a degree that only a handful can truly claim success. We would expect the UK picture to be somewhat improved in this respect come 2006 and BT's 8Mbps trial completion etc.

Further details related to the UK’s broadband coverage by region, where Scotland sticks out the most for generally flaky cover over all service speeds.