After years of lagging behind other countries in terms of both availability and take-up, Britain now looks like a trailblazer, at least in terms of coverage.
According to the OECD's report, DSL will be available on 95 percent of UK telephone lines by the end of this year. No other major industrialised nation is expected to boast such high availability. This percentage is only expected to be matched by Finland, and bettered by Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland.
The OECD's figures are largely based on projections for the rollout of BT's ADSL network, which is nearing 90 percent availability at present.
BT expects to reach 99 percent coverage by the end of 2005, and the OECD's report claims that no other country will equal this.
The OECD's findings could cause glasses to be raised in Westminster. The government has set itself the goal of making Britain the most "extensive and competitive" broadband market of all the countries in the G7 by 2005.
A few years ago, it seemed very unlikely that the UK would reach this target. In 2000, DSL was available over just 50 percent of lines, compared to 60 percent for Germany and 69 percent for Canada -- both fellow members of the G7.
Last year, the UK rose to third place for competitiveness, but languished in fifth place 'extensiveness', which is calculated on the basis of coverage and competition from rival services like unmetered narrowband services.
The OECD's figures suggest that the government's goal might yet be achieved.
BT was quick to crow over OECD's findings, which chief broadband officer Alison Ritchie said was "great news for UK plc as well as for BT, other broadband companies, government and local partnership initiatives, and customers."
"The challenge now is to drive the take-up of broadband. The UK is already a world leader in narrowband internet but the time has come for it to move up the league table for broadband as well. The growth in adoption rates is very encouraging but there is plenty more to be done" said Ritchie.
Talkback
a world leader in your own country *?!
I guess you have to start somewhere
Lead the world? Maybe in coverage but not in speed and costs! Somehow compared to other services have found in other countries the price/speed you get is usually by about at least 20kb slower than in the uk! With German telecom upping download speeds from 768 to 1mb etc. the 512 usually provided in the home sector is with being almost 50% slower almost a rip off for me!
Is it just me or are there seriously better offers available!? So far only telwest or ntl offer similar speeds with comparably reasonable prices.
Any opinon on this?
Excellent. We've been behind for far too long.
I think speed is only as good as it is when contrasted against reliability. A connection can be fast, but the thing that you have to remember with broadband or DSL is that there is a ratio of other users on your line. And by knowing this, picking a good ISP isn't difficult.. I'm an extremely happy Pipex customer and enjoy 562k every evening, after being told to expect the ususal 512k.
My partner has NTL to his flat, supposedly at 750k but his conenction is troublesome, and sometimes I don't think it's any faster than mine at all.
Tricky to determine how we fair up. Stats are after all, stats, and can't always provide a clear picture of true performance.
Stupid results. England is much smaller than canada and germany and our broadband is a snails pace compared to other areas of the world.
This upbeat talk is all propaganda. We are only just starting to make inroads even if we top the list of that irrelevant "league table" which have become o so popular.
our rollout of snail broadband is only just starting... when we get as good as areas of korea i will eat my hat.
This is just 'bluster', with no substance.
BT are only increasing the coverage by
moving the goalposts. They now think they can extend ADSL to 10KM rather than 6.
I also heard that the old copper in the ground
(30 years old in many cases) is not as degraded as they first expected, so it will
support higher speeds after all!! BT let off the hook once again!! I have dealt with BT for more years that I care to remember and they still act like they did in the 1950's, They need a massive shake up from the top to the bottom.
You dont really know what you are talking about do you?
i have a 1meg line at 120K per second for cheaper than most 512K. I dont even use the BT network!
You just need to look and you can see the deals that are out there.
Name them Mylo -I bet you dont operate in a small village on Gower! Even going with a third party ISP I will still be dependent on BT connectivity and from what I have heard from others that leaves a lot to be desired.
I anticipate paying about £20 month for 512k if you can tell me where to get 1 mb for less then let me know please