UK is a broadband slowcoach – Oftel

The UK is still miles behind other countries when it comes to the take-up of broadband and that's despite all the work carried out by regulator Oftel to promote competition for broadband.

So says an official report from the telecoms regulator, which found that just over one per cent of the UK's population had broadband at the end of June.

In comparison, France has more than 1.5 per cent and Germany more than 3 per cent. For the US the figure is almost at 6 per cent, while Sweden is pushing almost 7 per cent.

Still, the UK's poor showing is not something that is going to deter Oftel from blowing its own trumpet about how well broadband is doing in the UK.

Instead, Oftel would prefer us to focus on another part of the report that shows that the UK's appetite for broadband is outpacing a number of other countries.

With 28,000 connections a week, UK consumers are taking up broadband services at a faster rate than users in France, Germany, Sweden and the US. It also seems that residential broadband prices in the UK are also roughly on a par with prices charged in the France, Germany and the US.

Great. If you can get it.

Oftel's International benchmarking study of Internet access (dial-up and broadband) can be found here. ®