10/21/2010 9:45:43 AM
IT Comms news: UK Net is Yesterday's Net
It has long been reported that the UK's broadband speeds are not
up to, well, speed! The good news is we are climbing up the
rankings, albeit slowly (ironic use of vocabulary as we
are talking about speed!).
Cisco's annual report has looked at how countries are doing in
terms of quality and penetration of net services. The UK came out
18th, up from 25th place last year, out of 72 countries surveyed.
Who was top of the list? South Korea - AGAIN!
Fourteen countries were classed as being in the 'elite' club (in
other words they are ready for 'tomorrow') - in 2008 only one
country qualified: Japan. To be classed as ready for tomorrow's
internet the study looked at whether the network could cope with
high definition internet TV and high quality video communications.
For this average download speeds of 11Mbps and upload speeds of
5Mbps would be required.
So what is the UK currently capable of? Erm, an embarrassing
average upload speed of 1.7Mbps! Cisco noted that while the UK is
not ready for tomorrow, there had been improvements.
As ARM reported on 15th October ('To Infinity
& Beyond'), the UK is likely to raise its
game over the next 12 months due to BT's fibre optic
roll-outs and Virgin extending their network. A Welcomed
improvement i must say!
Damian Hicklin
IT
Security & Communications Manager
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ARM