Britons Pay Cheap For Slow Broadband Speeds, Says Ofcom

A document published by communications Watchdog Ofcom has shown that users in the UK are forking out less than their European and US counterparts for their broadband services and good news is that prices are still going down.

Across the six markets (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US) included in the survey, UK service providers were found to be the cheapest single service broadband on average according to the International Communications Market Report.

In addition, Ofcom found out that on average, a typical household telecoms consumption, including fixed and mobile phone, broadband and pay TV would cost £102 per month in the UK, which is roughly 28 percent lower than in Italy.

Still internet costs in the UK are quite low especially as some vendors like O2 or Orange are literally giving away free broadband with their mobile phone contract.

But broadband speeds in the UK are still slow compared to mainland Europe, especially France and Scandinavian countries as noted by the OECD in a recent report. 

The Ofcom also found out that only a tenth of broadband users in the UK have access to speeds of 8mbps and aove compared to 33 percent in Sweden but this could well change when BT rolls out its next generation 20CN network.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, stated that  "The report shows that UK consumers have benefited from competition in the form of lower prices. Innovation means that the UK is well placed in the take up and availability of digital services."