UK 'behind on fibre'

The UK is lagging behind the likes of Russia and Lithuania in terms of broadband speed, with a lack of fibre connections to blame, Point Topic has claimed.

While the average speed in the UK is less than 8Mbps, the two eastern European countries achieve 24Mbps.

However, even they are far behind some Asian countries - Japan and South Korea have average connections of 91Mbps and 42Mbps respectively, reports TechRadar.

The reason for this, according to Point Topic, is that fibre optics account for 44 per cent and 38.5 per cent of the broadband market in those countries.

Oliver Johnson from the company told TechRadar that the UK "is already behind".

"It takes time to roll out fibre infrastructure. Japan and Korea are well ahead, but even compared to many European markets the UK is slow out of the blocks," he added.

Mr Johnson concluded that the infrastructure was vital for future technologies which "are core to the continuing competitiveness and growth of the UK."

In September, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a government advisory organisation, said that a fibre-based network deployment could cost between £5.1 billion and £28.8 billion, depending on the technology used.