UK broadband coverage `best in Europe’, but….

Britain is amongst the leaders in the delivery of superfast broadband coverage, according to research undertaken by broadband analysts Point Topic, as part of its continuing Broadband Geography service.

Three out of every four homes in Britain can now get fixed broadband services at superfast speeds if they choose. Contrary to the common perception that the UK is backward in developing next-generation broadband services, this is one of the highest proportions for any major country in Europe.

Superfast or Next-Generation Access (NGA) services are defined as those providing download speeds of 30 megabits per second (Mbps) or more. New research by Point Topic shows that as of the beginning of 2014, 20.4 million of the 27.2 million homes in the UK were in areas covered by one or more superfast broadband services. The services are mainly those provided by Virgin Media over its cable TV network and BT over the telephone network.

Point Topic’s research, part of its shows that superfast broadband coverage increased by 4.9 percent during 2013 in the UK. The growth has mainly been driven by BT’s rollout of its `fibre-to-the-cabinet’ services, sold by both BT Retail and a range of other ISPs.

Figures for other countries are not yet available but Point Topic believes that superfast broadband is now on offer to a higher proportion of homes in the UK than in any other major country in Europe.

"Britain was ahead of all the other big countries in the EU a year ago," said Oliver Johnson, Chief Executive of Point Topic. "With its growth in 2013 we are confident that it has held its place" Germany is the country which comes closest to the UK among the European Union’s big six, with 66.2 percent coverage a year ago.

Coverage at lower speeds still leaves many people unable to use the full range of broadband applications.

"Consider the plan to take BBC3 off air, for example," said Johnson. "We reckon about 1.2 million homes would not be able to get those programmes online if that happened today."

Some 91 percent of British homes can get at least 4Mbps, often seen as the minimum for a decent broadband service.

"Being able to get a service doesn’t mean you actually buy it, of course," says Johnson. "Many people in superfast areas are still using standard broadband over the telephone network and find it’s enough for their needs. Many other homes don’t have fixed broadband at all, although they may be using mobile connections."

There does seem to be another side to this issue that could affect the deliverers of services, and in particular cloud services. The underlying contention of the research would seem to be based on the presumption that the delivery services and their systems are actually up to the job.

And this could be important, for as more users and consumers invest in the higher speed connections, the demand for reliable services will rise.

But while the underlying network may be able to provide sufficient resources for services such as widespread streaming video, there is evidence that many service deliverers may still be unequal to the struggle. Despite the availability of high-speed networking, services can still be slow, with delays and breaks, at peak times.

This suggests that the time has come for service providers and deliverers to invest in delivery capacity themselves. For example are they using enough Content Distribution Network (CDN) outlets so that one big CDN service is not overloaded. Even with high speed in theory at the network edge, that does not mean reliable delivery at times of high capacity. If the UK does have the best broadband it is time for the service deliverers to shape up and put some investment in.

Point Topic's research provides estimates of broadband coverage and take-up right down to the postcode level. The general public can use it to find what broadband is available at a particular house, for example, by using the Rightmove property-search website. ISPs, retailers and content providers use it to pinpoint where people can use their services and to target their sales messages accordingly.