Britain behind in broadband stakes

UK consumers have little choice in price or services when it comes to broadband, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In its Communications Outlook 2007 report, the international trade agency found that British consumers pay an average of £14.50 a month for broadband compared to around £8 a month in the US, £8.20 in France and £5.40 in Sweden. The report, based on 2006 prices, also found that Britons pay £1.81 per megabit per second, compared to the equivalent of 11p in Japan.

As well as being expensive when compared to other nations, UK broadband speeds are also dismal. Countries such as Japan, Sweden and Korea can offer speeds of up to 40GB/sec.

While not all doom and gloom, with UK consumers overall continuing to pay less year on year for communications services, with costs for voice calls falling sharply, the stated goal of the Government to make British broadband the best in the world is becoming less of a reality.

According to the OECD, Britain is now ranked 19th out of the 30 countries surveyed.

The report blamed the speed issues on the poor state of British infrastructure; most UK broadband is channeled over the copper network used for telephones. Countries such as Japan and Korea can offer the faster speeds because they have made huge investments in fibre networks.

But the OECD said questions remain about who should pay for installing new fibre networks and who should own them. For example, it said there is a growing trend for local municipalities themselves to build the network and then require their local network operator to offer competitors access to the network under equal terms.

The agency said governments, industry and local authorities need to work together to agree how best to upgrade telecommunications networks because there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

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