Their list of 100 top cities around the world for broadband internet penetration and content delivery contains only one solitary UK city. Is it London? Could it be Edinburgh? Possibly Manchester?

No, the only British city to make it into the Akamai Technologies chart of the Top 100 locations for broadband internet access was…..Bradford.

And guess where it came…

Bradford, the only UK city to make the grade, limped into the global broadband list at Number 99.

This list may cause some concern for ministers in the government who have recently pledged that the United Kingdom will have access to the best broadband internet connections in Europe by the time the current parliament reaches its end.

When you look at the Akamai Technologies list, those seem like tall claims. It’s a bit like when John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world and he replied, “He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles.”

It would be great if the UK could step up its game and catch up on some of its rivals in Asia, Europe and the USA. Hopefully, some of the recent developments such as Fujitsu getting involved in the UK broadband internet infrastructure will help.

Don’t fall behind everyone else with broadband internet yourself either. We provide lists of the best internet providers for you to compare. Take a look now through our Broadband Internet Deals.

BSkyB, BT, Everything Everywhere, O2, TalkTalk, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone have all signed up to the new code which should help broadband customers make better decisions about which packages are most suitable.

With all of those internet providers onboard, 9 in 10 fixed-line broadband customers and 6 in 10 mobile broadband customers are covered.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the leading advisory group to the UK government for broadband, assisted in producing the code. Their Chief Executive, Antony Walker, said, “This commitment to provide clear and comparable information in a common format is very important. It will not only help to ensure consumers are better informed about the services they buy and use, but will also provide a clearer picture for policy makers of the way in which traffic management is actually used in the UK market.”

“Consumers need to be able to make informed choices about the services they buy and policy makers need to be able to make informed decisions about the policy and regulatory framework they set. This new commitment provides an essential building block for getting both of these things right,” added Mr Walker.

If you want to make informed choices about internet deals then it would be a good idea to browse our selection of broadband prices from a variety of internet providers. View our latest Broadband Deals now.

Okay, so lots of people argue that such news services should be free anyway – but, as Dylan quite adequately put it, the Times they are a-changing…

And, as you probably well know, the Times they are also a-charging these days!

So, mobile broadband contracts with 3 Mobile could keep you on the right side of the Times paywall for a lovely three months.

The BBC recently said that visits to The Times Online and The Sunday Times Online had dropped by 87 per cent. Only just over a hundred thousand users were reported to be paying £2 a week for the privilege of reading Times content online.

Somewhat downplaying those figures, James Harding of The Times said: “It’s very early days but we’re hugely encouraged by what we’ve seen. We’re seeing that those people who are reading the digital editions of the Times and the Sunday Times really like them, if they sign up for a trial they tend to stick with us.”

3 Mobile’s 3G network coverage spans 97 per cent of the UK and their mobile broadband dongle contracts can be picked up for £15 with 5GB of broadband. On that deal the dongle itself will only set you back £4.99.

Head of Customer Propositions for 3 Mobile Broadband, Alys Mathew, said: ”As more people consume news online, a partnership with The Times is a perfect offer for our mobile broadband customers. Three’s network has over 97 percent population coverage for 3G services, so we’re happy to expand the reach of The Times online readership across the country to more mobile devices.”

There are a range of cheap mobile broadband deals on the e4s website which often have special offers or free gifts such as laptops thrown into the mix. Take a peek now at the latest mobile broadband deals on the market.

Anyone who subscribes with Vodafone to their Standard, Premium or Ultimate mobile broadband service for 18 months gets a free dongle and the first three months free.

The Vodafone Standard mobile broadband package costs £15 a month for a 3GB data allowance. Thrown in with this package you also get basic PC protection (anti-virus, anti-spyware and auto-update) and 2GB of PC backup.

Both the Premium and Ultimate mobile broadband packages come with premium PC protection (anti-virus, anti-spyware, auto-update, firewall, spam filters and control panel) and 20GB of PC backup. The Premium deal costs £20 a month for 4GB data allowance and the Ultimate will set you back £25 a month for 5GB.

Vodafone also have a Starter mobile broadband internet package which comes with few frills but a very cheap price tag. The main incentive with this offer is that you don’t need to subscribe for 18 months. For £15, you can sign up for a month at a time, you still get a free dongle and 3GB data allowance but without any PC protection or PC backup. The Vodafone website says that the 3GB of data allowance that you get on the Starter and Standard packages will have you surfing online for up to 100 hours.

For a regular comparison of these sorts of mobile broadband offers from a range of internet providers along with mobile broadband deals with free gifts such as laptops, keep an eye on our Best Mobile Broadband Deals page.

Well, that’s what Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda thinks at least.

Speaking at a press conference last week, Kroes explained how the European Commission wants everyone in the member states to have access to fast broadband internet by 2020. By that date they hope that the whole of Europe will be able to surf the internet on broadband speeds of 30Mbps. That’s an ambitious plan since we in the United Kingdom now only have speeds of around 3Mbps. Germany and France are slightly quicker at 4.5Mbps

“These measures will help to ensure that Europeans get the first-class internet they expect and deserve so that they can access the content and services they want,” said Kroes

So, how does the European Commission plan to bring about this broadband revolution?

Well, first off they want all member states to provide basic broadband by 2013. They also plan to use some of the 800MHz spectrum band that is being freed up by the move from analogue to digital television for mobile broadband instead. They will also encourage further roll-out of fibre optic connection in order to boost broadband speeds to the target of 30Mbps.

None of this is going to be cheap though. The European Commission themselves put an estimated cost on reaching that target of at least £150 billion but possibly up to £230 billion. However, Kroes believes that the investment over the next decade is essential. “I cannot sit by and allow our businesses to continue to compete against Asian businesses with internet 100 times faster than our own,” she said.

But, what do we know about fast internet? Well, quite a bit actually. And we are always scouring the web for internet providers with the best deals. For the cheapest internet prices visit our Broadband Dealzone.

As we blogged about just last month, the UK has fallen to 14^th in the digital economy rankings of the Economist Intelligence Unit. The think tank says that £200 million needs to be invested just so Scotland can equal the broadband speeds of other countries.

The £200 million would be used to install a fibre optic broadband network across the majority of Scotland. In the more remote parts of the country there should be development of new technology to improve copper, satellite and wireless technology. A public subsidy would more than likely be needed to supply such improvements.

The organisation also claimed that broadband is as important to today’s development as the railways and canals where to the age of the first Industrial Revolution. In light of this, Reform Scotland believes that the improvement of broadband speeds and broadband internet reach should be the responsibility of a designated Scottish government minister.

Reform Scotland said: “There is no co-ordinated digital strategy or plan to ensure that large parts of Scotland do not suffer from no or very limited access to the next generation of high-speed broadband.”

We like to keep abreast of all developments in the world of broadband access, internet providers and internet prices. As soon as we find anything new – whether it is broadband news or the latest internet deals – you will find an update in our pages. Have a look now at our most up to date listings of Broadband Deals.

Last year, the UK managed to rank 13^th in the list of countries researched by the EIU for factors including broadband access. This year the United Kingdom has slipped down a place to limp in at 14^th behind Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Director of global technology research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, Denis McCauley, said that one of the reasons the UK had moved tumbled was that other countries had stepped up their game on internet access. The new coalition government was also factored in to the statistical model of the EUI report as McCauley said: “We have downgraded the UK’s scores this year in the area of government policy and vision, due to the greater uncertainty surrounding the government’s overall digital development strategy, its e-government strategy and other areas of digital leadership.”

The Economist Intelligence Unit study looks at various factors in an attempt to put a benchmark on the worldwide digital economy. Amongst other influencing factors on home and mobile internet access in each country, it measures the impact of 3G networks and fibre optic cable broadband facilities in each country.

The Nordic countries seem to be faring much better than the UK according to the research; Sweden topped the list, Denmark were 2^nd, Finland 4^th and Norway 6^th.

The really good news for internet deals and internet prices that came out of the EUI report though was that broadband is actually becoming more affordable worldwide. If you take 2 per cent of monthly household income as a benchmark then the number of countries that can afford broadband internet access has risen from 33 in 2008 to 49 in the latest survey for 2010.

Affordability on internet deals is something we are passionate about. That is why we scour the latest internet providers to find the best internet prices around. Compare the best internet deals available now on the E4S website.

Finding the best mobile broadband package to fit your download limits and speed requirements at a reasonable price has become even harder as providers began to offer special prices if you were already signed up to their network as a mobile phone user and included free laptops as part of the offers to entice new customers.

T-Mobile’s latest mobile broadband offer launched on Boxing Day is set to compete with the best of them. Included in the package is an ASUS Eee PC netbook, upto 4.5 MB download speeds and 3 GB download allowance every month on a 24 month contract for £25 per month. Also thrown in is 200 texts a month from the netbook.

The popularity of the ASUS Eee PC in 2008 as an ultra portable netbook was unfounded. For it now to be part of the new T-Mobile mobile broadband package makes this a very attractive deal.

Compare broadband free laptop deals

O2 have just cut the price of its mobile broadband dongle from £97.96 to £29.99 for pay as you go users putting it the top of the list as the cheapest pre pay mobile broadband provider in the UK.

With several pre-pay options available including: £2 a day for 500MB, £7.50 a week for 1GB or £15 a month for 3GB, this cheaper mobile broadband alternative will appeal to students and the younger users who spend a large percentage of their freetime on the internet but are unsure or unable to commit to a longer 12 or 18 month contract. The O2 pre-pay mobile broadband offer also includes unlimited access to The Cloud Hotspot wi-fi  with whom they have partnered.

In the light of recent VAT changes, all 5 mobile broadband providers have committed to lowering their prices and passing on these savings to their potential customers.

Let us help you find and compare both the latest mobile broadband deals and the range of broadband free laptop offers

Happy broadband hunting.

The speed of your mobile broadband connection is very important should you wish to download large files such as movies or music, or watch online streaming videos on sites such as You Tube or indeed upload your photos to social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The faster the connection, the less time you will have to wait for a download to complete, or the less time you will have to wait for a streaming video to load. High mbps is best!

So who is fastest?

On the back of their advertising campaigns, the leader of the pack appears to be Vodafone, with a claimed speed of up to 7.2 mbps, ranking it up with some of the fastest fixed line broadband on the market. But can Vodafone live up to this claim and is mobile broadband really be as fast as the traditional home broadband using cable or a BT landline?

Well, research by the BBC journalist Rory Cellan Jones suggests that the majority of the UK would be lucky to get anywhere near this speed using their mobile broadband dongle. The reality is that the meaning of ‘up to’ is actually ‘at very best’ and therefore in most cases you will not receive this speed. Comparing the leading mobile broadband providers at a glance, we can see that the advertised speed for each is:

02 – up to 1.8 mbps

Orange – up to 1.8 mbps

3 – up to 3.6 mbps (improvements ongoing to provide 7.2 mbps)

Vodafone – up to 7.2 mbps

T-Mobile – up to 4.5 mbps

Virgin – up to 4.5 mbps (using T-Mobile network)

So, from first glance, you would think that the fastest and best mobile broadband for you would be Vodafone and then T-Mobile and Virgin would be the next best options. As mentioned, this may be best for a few of you, but for most, this really may just depend on where you live and where you will be using your mobile broadband connection.

How to get the right mobile broadband deal for you

The general consensus is that most mobile broadband connections will currently struggle to reach above 2.0 mbps but you can get a better idea by popping your post code in to the mobile broadband coverage checkers available on the providers websites:

Coverage checkers: 3 T-Mobile Vodafone Virgin O2 Orange

If you are thinking of switching your current ISP for mobile broadband, we would recommend that you compare the speed you get from the coverage checker with your current speed using a broadband speed checker . This will give you a much better idea of what is truly on offer for you from the mobile broadband providers, and if your connection would slow down should you switch from your current provider to mobile broadband package.

If you are purchasing mobile broadband for the first time, then you can get a like for like speed check to help aid your decision and work out what is the best mobile broadband deal for you. Mobile broadband speed is not always what it seems!!!

In in all, mobile broadband is a fantastic option for internet on the move and speed is improving and will continue to improve, with providers like Vodafone and 3 leading the way in this pursuit. Ultimiately mobile broadband could be as fast if not faster than a fixed line broadband service with the introduction of 4G technology, however for the moment it’s best to check your speeds before signing up. ]]> http://www.e4s.co.uk/blogs/broadbandblog/2008/10/28/is-mobile-broadband-really-up-to-speed/feed/ 0