Akamai says fibre broadband rollouts will help boost average speeds

Fibre optic broadband services will play a part in boosting the UK's average connection speeds, according to Akamai Technologies.

David Belson, director of market intelligence at the content delivery network, said the wider deployment of fibre-to-the-cabinet technology is "one component" of bringing the UK up to speed with technologically-advanced nations like South Korea.

However, he warned that increasing the coverage of fibre broadband infrastructure will not singlehandedly push the country up the connection speed league table.

"If the fibre is there, but the services marketed towards subscribers are not priced at affordable levels, then the UK will struggle to move ahead," Mr Belson explained.

The Akamai chief stressed that this is true of any country, not just the UK.

Akamai's latest State of the Internet report, covering the final quarter of 2011, revealed that 27 per cent of connections to the company's intelligent platform were made at "high" broadband rates of more than 5Mbps.

South Korea was leading the way, with 83 per cent of the country's broadband lines offering these speeds.