Three percent of the UK can’t access ‘decent’ broadband speeds

The UK’s independent communications regulator, OFCOM, has released a new report which details the availability of broadband within the nation, finding that three percent of UK premises, around 925,000 properties, cannot access government’s Universal Service Obligation (USO). 

The Universal Service Obligation is a speed target which will become a legally enforceable right for broadband users by 2020, which guarantees users access to broadband speeds of 10Mbit/s downloads and 1Mbit/s uploads. This finding shows that the government and broadband providers still have to make a lot of progress before the whole UK can meet this minimum target.   

Today around 93% of UK homes have access to what the EU calls “Superfast Broadband”, offering a target downloads speed of at least 30Mbit/s, with England leading with 95% coverage, followed by Wales with 92%, Scotland with 91% and Northern Ireland with 88% coverage. “Superfast” broadband coverage in the UK increases to 95% when using the UK’s definition for “Superfast”, which is 24Mbit/p download speeds.