SuffolkOnline.net

A study looking at the quality of broadband networks has ranked the UK 25th out of 66 countries. The study conducted jointly by Oxford University's Säid Business School and the University of Oviedo's Department of Applied Economics, on behalf of Cisco, looked at whether broadband connections were fit for today's use by looking at applications consumers use such as sharing photos, video calls on Skype, and watching online video. Two thirds of the countries were ready for today's requirements, but only 9 were ready for future applications such as high definition video. The UK ranked 25th, a one place drop from last year.

The tests indicated that countries would need an average download speed of 11.25 Mbps and an upload of 5 Mbps to be 'comfortable' for future applications. The average globally was a download of 4.75 Mbps, and upload of 1.3 Mbps. To attain this average speed, faster services would need to be more widely deployed and chosen by consumers, such as the 50meg cable-broadband service from Virgin Media or fibre to the home which can offer peak speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

If you're thinking of moving, the following countries were deemed to have broadband that is 'ready for tomorrow': Korea, Japan, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania and Denmark. A full table of the tested countries and their status is available from BBC news.

Suffolk Online's view of this study is that it may be a little misleading especially concerning todays requirements where generally speaking it is viewed that we are ok. Quality of broadband networks is moving forward with the BT 21CN network and cable networks improving all the time, although whether the pace of change is enough is another matter.