Internet speeds across the world.

[efq]

Right I wanna know a few things please.

In Portugal (Lisbon) my internet connection is 100mb (which I get 100% of amazingly) and soon to be 100mb in my house in the Algarve but in the UK its only 50mb maximum?

We are talking about a little country that isn't as half rich as Britain that has a 2x+ faster speed that the average Brit Internet User.

I wanna know why this is? :P

[N!ck]

Because England was one of the first places in the world to get internet access to the public so the infrastructure is old and knackered and slow. Newer developed countries have modern kit and nice optic fibre layed down all over the place.

[efq]

Because England was one of the first places in the world to get internet access to the public so the infrastructure is old and knackered and slow. Newer developed countries have nice optic fibre layed down all over the place.
Ahh, that would make sense. Well thank god for that I guess to those who got it later :D

[ElliottThompson]

yeah its 50mb maximum but thats still limited and very few ISP's actually offer it, most people are on 20mb or lower in England, I heard something about England updating its infrastructure though!

[efq]

Yes, I was told by our Council that our area will have a complete redo of the lines this summer so hopefully by Winter I will have a decent connection here.

[Firehorse]

Virgin Media has the capacity to deliver 100mb+ but they don't because they have no competition over 50mb and that also means they can set their prices wild.

In sweden 100mbps is something like 30euros a month only! And 50mbps was originally £50 a month when virgin media first released it.

Its just taking advantage that there is only one company now which own the cable network, not even two anymore after they were bought up.

[Stephen!]

Yeah. Virgin are trialling 200MB in parts of the country I think.

[Tomm]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8139015.stm

Hopefully it should allow people like me to get some sort of fibre optic service rather than it being reserved for those apartments in the city centre.