Mark Sweney

Ofcom, the media and telecommunications regulator for the United Kingdom, has introduced a new service to make it easier for customers to switch broadband supplier to get a better deal. Ofcom hopes that the new process, One Touch Switch, will encourage people to seek out better deals after research found that more than two-fifths of people were put off switching broadband suppliers because of the hassle.

Almost 200,000 “forgotten homes” across the UK are being left behind in the government’s digital revolution, unable to get broadband speeds deemed the minimum to meet a modern family’s needs.

The United Kingdom has plummeted down the global broadband speed rankings to rate as one of the slowest countries in Europe, with a typical household taking more than twice as long to download a movie than the average home in western Europe. Britain has dropped 13 places in an annual study ranking the average broadband speeds of 221 countries and territories, placing it 47th fastest in the world. In 2019, the UK ranked 34th for average broadband speed.

More than a quarter of UK homes do not have fast enough broadband to cope with a typical family’s internet needs. Just over 26% of the UK’s estimated 28 million households are getting by on speeds of less than 10Mbps, the level the media regulator, Ofcom, says is the bare minimum requirement for a modern household. “This research lays bare the extent of the UK’s digital divide,” said Dani Warner, a broadband expert at uSwitch. “Streets that are relatively close geographically can be light years apart when it comes to the download speeds they are getting.”

Google, YouTube and Facebook could escape having to make billions in payouts to press publishers, record labels and artists after European Union lawmakers voted to reject proposed changes to copyright rules that aimed to make the tech companies share more of their revenues.