Average UK broadband speed up but rural divide widens

Biannual report from Ofcom shows superfast connections driving average speed upwards

The latest reports from Ofcom on broadband speeds in the UK give a mixed message: although average speeds continue to rise across the country there is a growing divide between rural and urban areas.

From May 2012 to May 2013 the average speed of fixed-lineresidential broadband in the UK has risen from 2.7Mbit/s to 5.7Mbit/s, anincrease of 64 per cent. Since records of speeds began in November 2008, theaverage speed had more than quadrupled – an increase of 309 per cent.

This increase is partly due to the rising popularity ofsuperfast connections – those with a download speed of 30Mbit/s. Over thecourse of the last year the number of superfast connections has doubled to 19per cent.

Average speeds in urban, suburban and rural areas have allincreased with rural speeds improving at the quickest rate. From 2011 to 2013they jumped from 4.1 to 9.9 Mbit/s – an increase of 141 per cent.

Despite this, the gap in terms of actual speeds betweenrural and urban areas actually widened: from 9.5 Mbit/s in 2011 to 16.5Mbit/sin May 2013. Ofcom blamed this on poor availability of superfast connections inrural areas, as well as a greater average distance between homes and telephoneexchanges.