The CLA Attacks CISCO Survey’s Claim That UK Broadband Meets Today’s Needs

The CLA today (Thursday, 1 October) said it disagreed with Ciscos broadband survey that states the UKs broadband is meeting todays needs.

The survey by Cisco found that only nine countries were ready for next-generation broadband.

CLA President Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: While it is true that UK broadband is absolutely not fit for the future we do not agree with Ciscos comments that the UK has broadband that is currently meeting the countrys needs.

This is simply not true. Rural areas all over the UK suffer from poor broadband connections, something that is hitting rural businesses particularly hard. The Digital Divide is growing as stated in the report and the Government must invest with private partners in closing the gap for the UKs rural economy to have any chance in developing to its full potential.

The survey goes on to say that the global download speed is 4.75Mbps (megabits per second). This highlights just how wrong our Government is in saying it wants to increase UK broadband to speeds of up to two Mbps we will still be miles behind the rest of the world in connectivity.

The CLA President added: The Government needs to recognise that the UK must aim for up to 10Mbps broadband speeds to compete globally.