Britain received a disappointing rank in the latest global broadband statistics.  It remained at 26th position followed by an average speed of just 3.5Mb.

As stated by the Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report, the topmost position was occupied by South Korea supporting an average download speed of 14.6Mb. Japan grabbed second place with an average speed of 7.9Mb. In Europe, top spot was taken by Sweden with an average speed of 5.1Mb. It was followed closely by Ireland which stayed at an average speed of 5.3Mb.  The telecoms regulator, Ofcom conducted a research last year. According to the findings of the research,  average speed in the UK was 4.1Mb, but that wouldn’t have made the UK to reach top 10.

UK was placed at 21st out of 30 countries by another report formed by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development recently. According to this report, UK possessed slower broadband speeds than Greece and Spain. When ranked in terms of broadband penetration, it came at 13th place.

The Government has made a promise of offering speeds of at least 2Mb to all households in the UK by 2012 whereas the Digital Britain report desires to engender funds for next-generation, superfast broadband networks by means of 50p tax on landlines.

Michael Phillips, Broadbandchoices.co.uk product director, said: “Many consumers are still not satisfied with their broadband speed. While there are a number of factors that affect your speed – such as the distance from your local exchange and congestion on the network – there are also things that you can do – such as installing an iPlate – to boost your speed.

“However, if you’re still not happy with your download speed, it could be time to “switch broadband provider,” he added. “This can save you a bundle as well as getting you a faster, more reliable service better suited to your needs.”