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UK not ready for 'web apps of tomorrow'

The UK is not prepared to manage next-generation internet applications, despite 14 other countries being ready to go, a report suggests.

By Tom Brewster, 18 Oct 2010 at 12:56

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The UK is not prepared to handle the “internet applications of tomorrow," a study has claimed.

The country is not one of the 14 nations already capable of powering such applications as high definition web TV on a wide scale, according to research from the Said Business School at Oxford University and the University of Oviedo, sponsored by Cisco.

This is despite the UK rising from 25th to 18th in the overall broadband leadership table, measuring both penetration and quality.

In the UK, there was a 39 per cent improvement in download throughput over 2009, while upload throughput was up 17 per cent.

Furthermore, there was found to be no broadband quality digital divide. However, the study still said the UK was not one of the places ready for next-generation web apps.

Even though Germany was ranked joint 18th alongside the UK, the former was still named as one of the nations ready for the apps of tomorrow.

Bulgaria, which ranked down in 27th, was also one of the countries said to be prepared for future internet apps.

South Korea, where broadband penetration was 100 per cent and the average download throughput was 33.5 Mbps, remained the top of the broadband table.

Fernando Gil de Bernabe, senior director at Cisco, admitted the findings were not as straightforward as they migh appear as broadband leadership was "a very complex issue."

"While this study sheds light on it, it should serve as a guide only to help countries and cities define their own priorities and measure the success of their policies,” he explained.

“While we have defined the minimum broadband quality for today's and tomorrow's internet applications, each country and city should have its own definition of these thresholds, influenced by its stage in economic development, ambitions and priorities, and its history and cultural heritage.”

During an interview with IT PRO earlier this year, director general of the Fibre to the Home Council, Hartwig Tauber, said the UK had much work to do if it wanted to catch up with the rest of Europe in rolling out fibre broadband.