Britain’s broadband networks have been ranked 31st out of 66 countries in terms of quality

According to the report from IT giant Cisco, the UK’s systems were found to be ”meeting needs for today”, but lagging behind most European neighbours including Bulgaria and Latvia, a host of Asian countries and the US.

Technologically-advanced Japan and South Korea were leading the way in terms of overall quality, the study found, with their broadband systems already rated ”ready for tomorrow”.

Cisco – which looked at broadband speeds as well as penetration – said the Britain’s facilities would improve through the looming upgrades of cable networks.

Joanne Hughes, from the firm, told the BBC: ”It can be a bit misleading to look at the rankings. The important thing is whether the broadband quality of a country is good enough for today’s needs and the UK falls well within this category.

”We forecast the UK will improve because of things such as cable networks being upgraded and the Digital Britain report focusing on next-generation access.”

Japan and South Korea have long been leading a drive for access to super-fast broadband services.

The South Korean government recently promised universal speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second) by 2012.

They joined countries including Sweden, Bulgaria, Latvia, Holland and Denmark in having ”ready for tomorrow”-rated broadband networks – enabling residents to watch applications like high definition video.

In Europe, Sweden was found to have best rolled out broadband access, with with residents outside the most populated cities apparently enjoying better quality than those in the cities.

The study found that the average global download speed globally was 4.75Mbps (megabits per second), while average upload speed was 1.3Mbps.

It is estimated that countries will need an average download speed of 11.25Mbps and an upload speed of 5Mbps in order to handle future applications such as high definition video.

The study was conducted jointly by Oxford University’s Said Business School and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics. (Via Telegraph)

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