UK broadband speeds behind Madagascar

The UK has slipped behind countries such as Madagascar when it comes to broadband speeds.

An annual analysis of global speeds put the UK 35^th in the list, down four places on last year and in the bottom third of EU countries.

A representative from broadband, TV and phone comparison website Cable, which compiled the list from more than 160m broadband speed tests across 200 countries, said it was “somewhat sad to see the UK not faring better”.

“A number of other countries have leapfrogged us since last year, including France and Madagascar,” said its analyst Dan Howdle.

“Compared to many other countries both in and out of Europe, the UK has simply come too late to a full fibre solution.

“Despite plans to roll out FTTP [fibre to the premises] to UK homes across the next decade or so, the UK is likely to fall further behind while we wait.”

As recently as 2012 only two per cent of Madagascar’s population was using the internet.

Singapore was again crowned the fastest country with average speeds of 60.39Mbps, compared with 18.57Mbps in the UK.

The next-fastest nations were Sweden, Denmark and Norway, as 25 other European countries registered ahead of the UK in the list.

The United States was 20^th while Ireland was immediately below the UK in 36^th.

The top 10:

1. Singapore 60.39Mbps
2. Sweden 46.00
3. Denmark 43.99
4. Norway 40.12
5. Romania 38.60
6. Belgium 36.71
7. Netherlands 35.95
8. Luxembourg 35.14
9. Hungary 34.14
10. Jersey 30.90