63% of U.K. Homes can Buy Service at 24 Mbps

Some 63 percent of U.K. households now have access to superfast broadband, Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, now says. That represents is a combination of coverage now provided by the Openreach network as well as service provided by Virgin Media. 

U.K. consumers in February 2012 were getting access about 22 percent faster  than they were in February 2011, Ofcom says. 

In November 2011, the average actual U.K. residential broadband speed was 7.6 Mbps, compared with 6.2 Mbps in December 2010, and 6.8 Mbps in May 2011. 

The increases mainly are a result of consumers moving onto higher-speed packages.  In November 2011, for the first time more than half (58 percent) of U.K. residential broadband connections had an advertised speed of above 10 Mbps, up from 48 percent in May 2011.

However, more than 40 percent of broadband consumers remain on packages with speeds of 10 Mbps or less, even though many of them would be able to get a higher speed at little or no extra cost if they switched package or provider.

That gap, as much as anything suggests why getting consumers to buy faster broadband access is anything but automatic.