Ofcom claims the UK “has one of the most competitive broadband markets in the world”, but it’s nonetheless poor value for money, according to new research.
Point Topic’s latest league table of the world’s best value broadband markets ranks the UK in lowly 24th position, far behind countries such as Japan, Germany and Russia.
Nine of the ten best value tariffs are either pure fibre or hybrid offerings where fibre is a significant part of the local loop
Hong Kong lays claim to the best value broadband on Earth, with its 1Gbit/sec fibre connections costing $0.028 per Mbits/sec over the course of a year. At the other end of the scale, Peru is the most expensive broadband nation on the planet, with the average connection costing $209 per Mbits/sec.
The UK’s poor ranking is largely due to a lack of high-speed fibre connections, which help drag down the cost per Mbits/sec in more advanced broadband nations.
“Nine of the ten best value tariffs are either pure fibre or hybrid offerings where fibre is a significant part of the local loop,” said Point Topic’s senior analyst Fiona Vanier. “The exception is Germany where Unity Media offer a cable service that is very competitive.”
“Bandwidth will continue to increase as fibre edges closer to the consumer,” Vanier added. “Higher speeds generally mean better value for the consumer.”
BT claims the Point Topic study doesn’t give the full picture on Britain’s position in the broadband world. “In our view the recent study by the European Commission which set out a Broadband Performance Index is probably better founded and more representative as it takes into account other factors relevant to the socio-economic benefits of broadband such as broadband coverage, competition by coverage, speeds, prices, use of advanced services, and socio-economic context,” a BT spokesman told PC Pro.
“This study showed that the UK is a leader in Broadband in the EU.”
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