Leased lines are becoming increasingly popular among British businesses, but why? There are a number of reasons for the surge in uptake, including the benefits of ultra low latency and a 1:1 contention ratio, but one of the primary advantages of leased lines is, of course, speed. Upload and download speeds continue to create issues for British businesses, and shocking reports demonstrate just how poor business broadband speeds across the United Kingdom really are. In fact, there are only a handful of countries in Europe whose average broadband speed is slower than the average speed in the UK.

Average Broadband Speeds in Europe

Despite the United Kingdom being one of the most affluent and technologically forward countries in Europe, we’re falling behind when it comes to broadband, which is many businesses are choosing to make the switch to dedicated leased lines to improve speeds and facilitate modern working processes, such as cloud computing and voIP, for example. Here are just a few of the countries in Europe that trump the UK when it comes to average broadband speeds:

Sweden – 50 Mbps average

Romania – 50 Mbps average

Netherlands – 45 Mbps average

Switzerland – 45 Mbps average

Lithuania – 45 Mbps average

Latvia – 40 Mbps average

Denmark – 40 Mbps average

Moldova – 40 Mbps average

Iceland – 40 Mbps average

The UK, Spain, and Portugal all fare pretty poorly, with only Italy, Greece, and some areas of Eastern Europe, including Turkey, demonstrating slower upload and download speeds on average. Expanding the data to look at how the UK fares on a global scale shows that Japan, South Korea, and the United States all come out on top, with the UK trailing miserably – and embarrassingly – behind.

Why the UK – and Other European Countries – Are Trailing Behind

It is understood that the reason that the UK – and other countries that *should* be faring better, like Italy and Spain – are trailing behind is because of limitations regarding the widespread rollout of superfast broadband. In the UK, we’re fortunate that there are a good number of businesses that do have access to superfast broadband, and find that these speeds are adequate enough to meet their requirements, but other businesses are getting bored of waiting, which is playing a significant role in boosting the popularity of leased lines. In a world that is increasingly ‘going digital’, fast upload and download speeds have never been more important, and it is expected that this growing focus upon the importance of speed – and reliability – will be instrumental in the continued growth of leased lines.