Professor claims UK broadband risks falling behind

A leading media law professor has spoken out about the state of the UK's superfast broadband coverage following the release of a new league table.

University of Sussex Professor Chris Marsden made the comments at the eForum Superfast Broadband seminar in Westminster. The latest research - which was carried out by Ookla using speedtest.net - ranked the UK as having the 25th fastest broadband network in the world.

But Professor Marsden warned that constant developments and widespread infrastructure investment in other countries could mean the UK is left behind in the coming years.

He said: "With other countries going significantly faster and making bigger investments, we should be worried that we're becoming a second-class country. Investment from outside our borders will simply go elsewhere."

According to the data gathered from speedtest.net, the UK has an average download speed of 25.55Mbps, putting it behind the next-generation infrastructure in nations including Romania, Singapore and Hong Kong, which topped the rankings.