Ofcom scorecard to compare UK broadband speed with Europe

Ofcom is to publish a scorecard this autumn that will compare broadband speeds in the UK with other European countries.

The communications regulator is doing this to monitor the Government's ambition for the country to have the fastest broadband services in Europe by 2015.

Read more: Broadband news | Broadband help

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt claimed this week that Britain may already have the fastest broadband in Europe and insisted that it would be the clear leader by the end of 2015.

Ofcom's most recent report found that average bandwidth in the UK had risen by 20 per cent, from 7.6 Mbits/sec in November 2011 to 9Mbits/sec in May this year as shown by the Misco graphic. However, despite Hunt's bullish remarks, the UK still lags behind many countries.

A quarterly state of the internet league table published by web technology company Akamai shows the UK just managed to scrape into 25th place in the broadband speed table; behind countries including Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Romania came top of this study with broadband connections that topped 35Mbits/sec.

Andrew Ferguson co-founder of the Thinkbroadband advice site said Ofcom's figures were good news but the Government's ambition, while laudable, needed to be seen in context.

"The increase in speed in the UK over the last six months is of course great news, but when Hunt talks about the UK having the fastest speeds in Europe, there is a hidden ‘gotcha'.

"What he was actually referring to is the fastest speeds among the major European countries. But hasn't indicated which these major countries are", he said.

Ofcom's Broadband Best in Europe Scorecard will use data collected by the European Commission, the OECD and other agencies and include overage and take-up, speed, price and choice.