How does Britain’s broadband compare?

gallery

India

The emerging markets are growing when it comes to adoption of broadband technology but how does outsourcing darling India fare compared to our progress in the UK?

India is a vast country with a huge population of over one billion, so to create an infrastructure to cater for that presents a real challenge.

Figures from the government in August of this year showed the country only had 6.81 million broadband subscribers and 14.39 million subscribers to the internet overall.

The lack of adoption tends to be blamed on poor infrastructure, with the country sticking with 38 million telephone lines for many years. The government also appears reluctant to open up the existing lines to competitors to improve prices and access like many other countries have.

So it is clear that broadband is falling way behind compared to other countries but it seems India has its own answer for connectivity.

The rise of mobile in the country has been immense. There are almost 470 million mobile phones in use and a lot of people are using the 2G network to keep in touch and online.

The mobile network is a good way of tackling online access, but this is also starting to feel the strain. Indeed, 2G network and wireless connectivity need to be boosted, with 3G and WiMAX seeming to offer the answers.

This month Jaikishan Rajaraman, senior director of GSMA, said in a statement: “India needs to make use of the digital dividend opportunity offered by the 700MHz to gear up for future roadmap for spectrum availability as the band promises to make broadband a much more feasible option.”

He added: “A study completed by LECG shows that an investment of $20 billion made in 3G networks over the next five years will benefit the Indian economy by more than $70 billion with additional creation of up to 14 million jobs.”

Is the UK broadband best or bottom?

It seems that when we compare ourselves to some countries, we aren't faring too badly. Although speeds may not reach other places' dizzy heights, adoption is strong and future plans are well underway so that we can achieve an improved infrastructure.

However, closer to home, we seem to lag behind somewhat and perhaps our government and industries should be looking across to mainland Europe for some tips to make our broadband the best it can possibly be.

Email to a friend

Print this page