The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has released a new flagship annual report into the global uptake of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which found that broadband ISP service prices have dropped by 52% between 2008 and 2010. Most strikingly the UK alone managed to rank 4th out of 38 selected countries for fixed line broadband internet access speed (note: the ITU's minimum speed for broadband is 256kbps).


The study claims that 59% of the UK's broadband ISP subscriptions are now benefitting from internet download speeds of above 10Mbps and 99% of all subscriptions can handle speeds of 2Mbps+. This is of course dramatically different from most studies because the ITU data is only referencing advertised speeds and NOT real-world performance, which makes for a poor comparison.


The percentage of UK households with internet access has grown from 71.1% in 2008 to 79.6% in 2010, meanwhile the penetration of fixed-telephone line subscriptions per 100 inhabitants fell over the same period from 55.9 to 53.7 with mobile networks picking up the slack. In addition the UK ranked 19th out of 165 countries for the affordability of its phone and broadband services.

3G based Mobile Broadband services are continuing to spread. At the end of 2010 some 154 economies worldwide had launched 3G networks with mobile broadband growing by 160% between 2009 and 2010. However many developing countries that rely on mobile solutions are finding it difficult to match the speed and "unlimited data" allowances offered by fixed line solutions.

ITU - Measuring the Information Society 2011
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2011/