Median broadband speeds increase from 256Kbps to over 1.4Mbps
With increasing speeds and decreasing prices you would think that we had never had it so good before with broadband. In terms of broadband speeds the ITU has looked at the median speeds
from 22 months ago versus now, and found that speeds had risen from 256Kbps to 1.4Mbps - this is not just the UK, but the whole world. It has found that broadband pricing has halved in a period
of just 10 months. For this and much more see the full digital.life ITU Internet Report 2006, which is on the ITU
website, the full 135 page document is downloadable as a PDF from here.
|
Country
|
Provider
|
Speed Mbps
|
Price per month (USD)
|
Price per 100Kbps
|
Change 2005-2006
|
|
Japan
|
Yahoo!BB
|
51.2
|
31.19
|
0.07
|
-12.5%
|
|
Republic of Korea
|
Hanaro
|
51.2
|
40.59
|
0.08
|
...
|
|
Netherlands
|
Internet Access
|
20.4
|
27.97
|
0.14
|
-81.3%
|
|
Taiwan, China
|
Chunghwa
|
12.3
|
22.67
|
0.18
|
...
|
|
Sweden
|
...
|
24.6
|
56.08
|
0.23
|
-6.5%
|
|
Singapore
|
Starhub
|
30.7
|
73.17
|
0.24
|
85.0%
|
|
Italy
|
Libero
|
12.3
|
37.23
|
0.30
|
-73.8%
|
|
Finland
|
Elisa
|
24.6
|
85.64
|
0.36
|
-51.4%
|
|
France
|
Free
|
10.2
|
37.29
|
0.36
|
-90.1%
|
|
United States
|
Comcast
|
4.1
|
20.00
|
0.49
|
...
|
|
Germany
|
Freenet.de
|
6.0
|
30.95
|
0.52
|
...
|
|
United Kingdom
|
Pipex
|
8.1
|
50.89
|
0.63
|
-53.6%
|
|
Hong Kong, China
|
Netvigator
|
6.1
|
51.17
|
0.83
|
...
|
|
Portugal
|
Sapo
|
8.1
|
75.82
|
0.93
|
...
|
|
Canada
|
Bell
|
4.0
|
41.26
|
0.42
|
-3.9%
|
|
This table is reproduced from page 78 of the digital.life report, and uses samples from July 2005 and April 2006. For a provider to feature they had to have had a service available on both these
dates. UK broadband consumers will know that there of course now cheaper deals in the UK, e.g. Be with their ADSL2+ service which works out at 10 cents per 100Kbps (Kilo bits per second), and the
various 'free' bundle options. Of course other countries will have moved on as well.
As always while the price of a service is possibly the simplest way to create a shortlist of providers to pick from, it is important to consider things like quality of support, any hidden costs,
as well as how you want to use your broadband. One rule is do not be fooled by wording that uses unlimited or other words you may think imply you can download as much as you like, very often this
translates into complex fair use policies and traffic management, so while the terms and conditions will be boring it is worth checking them.
Comments
Post a comment
Login Register
Dunno why they used Pipex as a reference considering they throttle customers' connections as a matter of policy. It's misleading to say Pipex those speeds.