Only one UK city makes top 100 broadband speeds list

Published April 27th, 2011

Residents in Bradford have access to the UK's fastest average broadband speeds, according to Akamai.

Bradford is the only location in the UK to make it into a new list of the top 100 fast broadband cities.

According to web content firm Akamai's latest State of the Internet report, covering the final quarter of 2010, the Yorkshire city's typical broadband speed is just over 6Mbps - the 99th best average capability in the world.

Across the UK as a whole, the figure came in at just 4.3Mbps, putting the country in 26th position in the global rankings.

This is significantly lower than the 6.2Mbps measured by telecoms industry watchdog Ofcom in November and December.

Speaking to V3, director of market intelligence at the company David Belson said several other UK cities - including Luton, Oldham and Southampton - had narrowly missed out on the top 100, although London's average speed of 3.5Mbps left it languishing in the 400s.

He insisted Bradford's success was not an anomaly, commenting: "Sometimes a city can jump up if there's an aggregation point in the area where networks meet, but that doesn't appear to be the case in Bradford so it seems reasonable to conclude that it's just that the broadband there is particularly good."

Mr Belson added the UK is heading in the right direction with regard to broadband speeds and claimed private sector investment from the likes of BT and Virgin Media could give the infrastructure a further boost.

"If local providers and the government drive investment we could see the UK move higher up on the list over time," he stated.

The high end of Akamai's list is dominated by south-east Asian nations, with Taegu in South Korea topping the charts after researchers recorded an average internet speed of 18.36Mbps.

In fact, South Korea accounts for the first 11 places on the list, with Hong Kong and Japan also performing strongly.

Constanta in Romania is the highest ranked European city, with an average speed of 8.23Mbps.