Fixed broadband consumers in the UK now use an average of 17 gigabytes of data a month, the equivalent of streaming 12 hours of BBC iPlayer HD video or 11 movies a month, according to new research.
The data, from communications watchdog Ofcom, revealed that 14 per cent of residential broadband connections were operating below the 2Mbit per second speed the government wants to make widely available by 2015.
‘Superfast’ networks with speeds of over 24Mbit now pass 58 per cent of British premises.
Ofcom ranked 200 regions for mobile coverage, mobile and fixed broadband availability, landline network and digital radio TV.
Mobile phone data revealed that 73 per cent of homes and businesses in Britain enjoyed 3G coverage from all five 3G networks – but only 13 per cent of the country was covered by the major operators.
Customers use 3G for higher speed data for services including mobile internet.
For 2G – which provides basic functions such as calls and messaging – 97 per cent of homes and businesses in Britain have enough signal from all four 2G operators to make a call when outside.
