Tired of slow UK broadband? Then move to Paris!

Posted on August 8, 2007
Filed Under Broadband |

Slow broadband connections are the bane of many people’s online lives in the UK. The average download speed is around a meagre 3mbps. This is sufficient if you are just looking at ordinary web pages or videos on YouTube, but when it comes to downloading movies or podcasts, it is far too slow. The competition is fierce in the broadband market these days and prices are fairly cheap, with many companies offering an enticing download rate of (up to) 24mbps. Which? Magazine carried out a test recently and found the average speed to be 2.7mbps.

A recent BBC article highlighted the choice available to the residents of Paris, France. There has been a slow take-up of digital television in France, which means providers have been looking at other ways of getting into peoples homes. They see the internet is the way forward with companies offering television, telephone and a fast broadband connection for about £20.00 (30 Euros) per month. The future for the residents of Paris is now looking even brighter as two major companies are start to lay down fibre optic cables that will allow download speeds of up to 100mbps in some parts of the city. Fibre-to-the-home (as it is known) is deemed as far to expensive for the UK.

If you were to download a HD quality movie using the new fibre-to-the-home connection it would take around 40 minutes to download, compared to more than eight hours on a 8mbps connection (and remember, the average speed in the UK is actually 2.7mbps!).

At the time of writing 2,000 people have signed up for the new service at £30 (45 Euros) per month for the internet connection, unlimited phone calls and a 51 channel television service. Orange are hoping to have up to 200,000 subscribers by the end of 2008.

Is has been estimated that the cost of setting up a similar service in the UK would be around about £10 billion!!!

Show Bookmarks