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Title: Super-Fast Cable! Lib Dems Triumph In Broadband Battle Post by: RealWire on April 30, 2010, 05:06:45 PM • Lib Dem’s Vince Cable beats all opposition in Top10.com’s broadband league table
• Cameron beats Brown for broadband speed Hot on the heels of Nick Clegg’s triumphs in the TV election debates the Lib Dems can now claim another victory – Clegg’s colleague Vince Cable is the senior politician whose constituents enjoy the fastest broadband (http://top10.com/broadband) in the UK. Vince Cable’s constituents in Twickenham on average get speeds over two megabits faster than those in Alistair Darling’s constituency in Edinburgh South West. That’s according to speed test data from Top10.com (http://top10.com/), the UK’s most popular broadband comparison (http://top10.com/broadband) service. With the general election fast approaching, Top10.com analysed over 9,000 speed tests taken by web users over the last three months in the constituencies of 12 senior politicians from the three main parties, in order to find out which had the fastest broadband. Nick Clegg even pushed Gordon Brown into third place in the battle of the party leaders. Clegg’s constituency’s speeds (4.90Mb) were 1Mb ahead of those of Gordon Brown (3.91Mb), but behind those of David Cameron (5.91Mb). As well as comparing the broadband speeds of the three parties’ leaders, Top10.com also looked at the speeds enjoyed by MPs closely involved in the passing of the recent Digital Economy Bill. Tom Watson – the backbench Labour MP who was the main opponent of the Bill – has an average broadband speed of 5.8Mb in his constituency. In comparison, constituents of Stephen Timms, the Minister for Digital Britain, receive average speeds of 4.7Mb, while the slowest broadband in the survey was found in South West Surrey, the constituency of Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. The national average for broadband according to Top10.com’s speed test is 5.25Mb. Full table of results: MP Party Constituency Average download speed (Mbps) Vince Cable Lib Dems Twickenham 9.38 Treasury spokesman Alistair Darling Labour Edinburgh South West 7.03 Chancellor Simon Hughes Lib Dems North Southwark & Bermondsey 6.05 Shadow energy spokesman David Cameron Conservative Witney 5.91 Leader of the Opposition Tom Watson Labour West Bromwich East 5.80 Backbench MP National average 5.25 Don Foster Lib Dems Bath 4.92 Shadow Culture spokesman Nick Clegg Lib Dems Sheffield Hallam 4.90 Leader Stephen Timms Labour East Ham 4.70 Minister for Digital Britain William Hague Conservative Richmond (Yorks) 4.47 Shadow Foreign Secretary Gordon Brown Labour Kirkaldy & Cowdenbeath 3.90 Prime Minister George Osborne Conservative Tatton 3.89 Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt Conservative South West Surrey 3.48 Shadow Culture secretary Alex Buttle from Top10.com said: “Broadband and the future of our internet infrastructure have become big election issues since the debate over the Digital Economy Bill. The huge range in broadband speeds identified in our survey demonstrates how a truly ‘Digital Britain’ is still a some way off. Instead we are still seeing a notable gap between those enjoying super-fast broadband speeds and others lagging behind well below the national average.” The three main parties have significantly differing broadband policies in their manifestos. The Liberal Democrats have pledged to scrap the controversial Digital Economy Bill while Labour has promised to deliver broadband at a minimum speed of 2Mb to “virtually every house” in Britain by 2012. It is likely to bring back its original plans – dumped before the election – for a 50p per month tax on every phone line to pay for the universal broadband roll-out. The Conservatives have promised to scrap the phone tax and instead find a ‘market-based solution’ for encouraging universal broadband access. |