The U.K. has the highest proportion of online individuals out of the five leading economies in the European Union, according to U.K. communications regulator Ofcom. That works out to about 77 connections for every 100 people.
That is a less helpful statistic than you might think, though, since fixed broadband services are used by “places,” not “people.”
Also, not all studies show the same country ranking. One other study cited by Ofcom found that the U.K. ranked third, on the measurement of “fixed broadband connections per 100 people.”
The EC’s Communications Committee (Cocom), for example, ranks France first, at 35 broadband connections for every 100 people, and Germany second at 33 connections per 100 people, while the U.K. has 32 connections for every 100 people.
The practical implication is that it can be tricky to compare “penetration” across countries if “persons per household” densities are significantly different in each country, or if the locations where people “use” the Internet differ (people use at home, work, other people’s homes, public locations).
The analysis compared the U.K.’s fixed and mobile broadband performance to France, Germany, Italy and Spain (Ofcom’s EU5), but all five countries are very closely correlated.
Internet usage in the U.K. market includes 81 percent of individuals going online at least once each week, a higher proportion than in the four other measured countries, Ofcom says.
The U.K. also has the lowest proportion of individuals who had never used the Internet (11 percent), compared to 39 percent in Italy and 29 percent in Spain.
The U.K. market also has the highest proportion of individuals who have bought or ordered goods or services online within the 12 months.
Mobile broadband penetration might be a different story. In the United Kingdom there were 64 mobile broadband connections per 100 people in January 2012, compared to 65 in Spain.
Adoption was significantly lower in Italy, with just 31 connections per 100 people. But Germany had just 35 mobile broadband connections for every 100 people, and France had 39 mobile broadband connections for every 100 persons.
When it comes to buying broadband access of 30 Mbps or faster, availability is less of a problem than actual customer buying patterns. Ofcom found such coverage reaches 65 percent of U.K. premises in June 2012. But actual buyers are just two out of every 100 persons (again, keep in mind the distinction between “households” and “persons”). Also, the 30-Mbps-capable networks also reach only 65 percent of potential homes, so a true measure of demand awaits completion of the new networks.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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