Ofcom have released an interactive broadband map with data provided by communications providers about the UK's broadband networks. This is part of the reporting requirements that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport requires Ofcom to make under the Digital Economy Act. It provides information, split out by local authority, on the availability of broadband services, including average modem sync speed, broadband take-up, super-fast broadband availability and details of those receiving less than 2Mbit/s. For the purposes of this, Ofcom is regarding super-fast broadband availability as being the entirety of the Virgin Media cable broadband network and all telephone exchanges where FTTC is being deployed. BT do provide data to ISPs on the percentage of lines that will be able to connect to a fibre cabinet at an exchange, so it's slightly puzzling that Ofcom didn't decide to use this more exact data.
The data on the map is obtained from Openreach, Virgin Media, Kingston Communications (in Hull), as well as Wight Cable (providing cables services on the Isle of Wight) and the Digital Region in South Yorkshire. Larger 'retail' ISPs are also providing data on average sync speeds and the number of lines syncing below 2Mbit/s. Data has been scored to allow for easy comparison on the map with different colours representing the ranking for that area. Alongside the map, Ofcom have also released a table of the data which allows different local authorities to be compared based on their figures for each region. Some interesting stats from this include:
A national summary of the data has also been collated by Ofcom which is below:
| Average sync speed (Mbps) | Receiving less than 2Mbps | Super-fast broadband availability | Broadband take-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 7.6 | 14% | 61% | 69% |
| Scotland | 7.6 | 13% | 41% | 65% |
| Northern Ireland | 6.3 | 23% | 97% | 60% |
| Wales | 6.5 | 19% | 31% | 63% |
| Total UK | 7.5 | 14% | 58% | 68% |
The full Ofcom broadband map can be found here with the data table available here. For a more comprehensive broadband map including estimated speeds, as well as speeds logged from our users and availability of other operators, see maps.thinkbroadband.com.
The average sync speed excludes those with a "super-fast" connection - BT Infinity or rebadged variants.