The U.K. leads the five largest EU economies...
The U.K. leads the five largest EU economies on superfast broadband take-up and coverage, the U.K. Office of Communications said Wednesday. Its European broadband scorecard (http://xrl.us/bqpkgx) defined “superfast” broadband as fixed-line broadband technologies capable of providing speeds equal to or…
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greater than 30 Mbps. The report compared coverage, take-up and usage, speed, price and choice. It found that availability of such broadband increased in the U.K. from about 60 percent at the end of 2011 to 73 percent, putting Britain in first place, ahead of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Among those countries, the U.K. had the highest broadband take-up, of all types, by household, at 83 percent, Ofcom said. It also had the highest proportion of people who bought goods online (77 percent) and the highest weekly Internet usage (87 percent), it said. The U.K. also had the lowest proportion of people who have never used the Internet (8 percent). The findings are good news “but there is more to be done,” said Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards. The regulator wants wider availability of superfast broadband, and more progress on ensuring that consumers get consistently high quality of service, including faster line repairs and installations for broadband and telephony, he said.