Connectivity poverty

[Walt Zingmatilder]

UK is 54th in the league for internet connectivity after Bolivia, peru and Albania. source BBC.

However this is offset since we are world leaders in Cream teas and the export of Scottish square sausages.

[L.A.]

UK is 54th in the league for internet connectivity after Bolivia, peru and Albania. source BBC.

However this is offset since we are world leaders in Cream teas and the export of Scottish square sausages.

Sounds slightly suspicious, I can't imagine a very high proportion of  the population of those countries have access to high speed broadband.
 

[Nearly Sane]

Sounds slightly suspicious, I can't imagine a very high proportion of  the population of those countries have access to high speed broadband.
 

It isn't about broadband, it's about 4g WiFi



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38304254

[Udayana]

... and it is not measuring the % of people connected or the geographic area but how often it is possible to connect when you have a suitable phone:

"OpenSignal's availability metric tracks the proportion of time users have access to a particular network. For example if a country has 50% 4G availability, then on average that country's 4G users can find an LTE signal half of the time. "

[Udayana]

It might be me .. but I usually find the causes pushed by Lord Adonis to be a pile of old crock...

[L.A.]

It isn't about broadband, it's about 4g WiFi



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38304254

Still sounds a bit odd - Peru has rather a lot of mountains, not an idea landscape for any mobile network.

I suspect that the stats conceal more than they reveal - my guess is that these countries have a large proportion of their population in large urban conurbations where coverage is straightforward.

[jeremyp]

It might be me .. but I usually find the causes pushed by Lord Adonis to be a pile of old crock...

I don't know about in general but but this one certainly looks like a crock to me.

Imagine a country like the UK that has a pretty good 3G infrastructure. People will buy modern phones capable of 4G. Some of the time they will have 4g and some of the time they will only have 3g. For many purposes, 3g is quite adequate. People here tend to travel about quite freely and move between 4g and 3g areas frequently ands without really noticing the difference on their phones.

Now imagine a country with complete 4g in one city and no phone coverage anywhere else. Only people who live in the city with 4g are going to bother buying a 4g capable phone. Their phones will show pretty good 4g coverage especially if the transport infrastructure is so poor that they rarely leave the city. However, it would be hard to argue that country was in a better place with respect to 4g than the UK.