Akamai Rates Bradford As UK Broadband Speedster
Bradford holds the UK’s fastest overall broadband record but it is only 99th in the world rankings
Bradford is the only British city to make the list of the 100 fastest broadband locations of the world – in 99th place.
With an average speed of just 6Mbps, Bradford is the fastest UK region. Such a low figure belies telecom service providers’ claims of a potential 20Mbps as a distant dream for copper-based wiring, and the reality of 40Mbps claims for fibre have yet to be proved. This is especially shocking because Bradford was one of the first cities to be offered Virgin Media’s 50Mbps service, and heavy promotion may be the reason why Bradford figures at the top of the UK list.
Slowband Britain
The report could generate more calls for a reality check with advertising claims which are set for best possible results rather than a realistic average. Speeds deteriorate from the time the signal leaves the exchange. Distance drops the rate but contention between neighbourhood users also reduces attainable speeds.
Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the last quarter of 2010 also places Southampton, Luton and Oldham just outside the top 100 but London, the UK’s premier business region, was well down the list (in the 400s) with an average of just 3.5Mbps.
As a country, the UK managed to creep up a place from the previous quarter but is still down in 26th place. Topping the list were mainly Asian countries with Japanese and South Korean cities figuring prominently. Of the top 100 cities, the two countries accounted for 73 places, with the top 11 places being held by South Korea.
Taegu in South Korea is the place to live if speed is required. The city came top with a speed of 18.4Mbps.
Russia Is Malware Champion
Akamai also looked at sources of malware attacks. As expected, Russia topped the list and accounted for 10 percent of malicious traffic. Taiwan and Brazil came second and third, each generating just over seven percent.
Attempts to clean up the US traffic seems to be having an effect, with the country dropping from first place in Q2 2010 to fifth place, marginally below China. However with both countries on a seven percent level the drop of over 3.5 percent to sixth-placed Egypt shows where clean up efforts should be concentrated.
