Research by the Paris-based rich world club (photo) found that France and Japan had the fastest median advertised download speed in 2010, both recording 102.4 Mbit/s, followed by Korea at 51.2 Mbit/s of median download speed. The second best performer in Europe was the Netherlands (28.2), followed by Greece and Portugal (both 24.6).

Luxembourg’s median advertised download speed was 10.2 Mbit/s, behind neighbours Germany (16.4) and Belgium (15.4). Also below the median were the US (12.3), and Spain and Turkey (both 8.2).

However, the report noted that Luxembourg registered the largest increase in observed average connection speeds, up 57 percent over the year before. Korea had the second highest gain in speed (46.8%), followed by Mexico (51.4%).

The report studied 686 fixed broadband service plans offered last autumn by 101 firms in all 34 OECD countries.