A new study into the state of UK broadband coverage has predicted that 90 per cent of homes across the country will have connections of up to 32Mbps by 2019.

The report from Point Topic comes hot on the heels of Lord Carter's announcement that the government hopes to ensure universal broadband access to all British households at 2Mbps by 2012. Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, said: "The vision of the people who launched broadband has been pretty well fulfilled.

In just 10 years high speed internet access has gone from novelty to necessity for millions of families." The company conducted a region-by-region survey to establish what percentage of a population in a particular area has access to high speed home broadband services. The results show that 93 per cent of people in London are in reach of broadband speeds in excess of 8Mbps. 5.8 per cent of Londoners can reach connections of 2-8Mbps and only 1.2 per cent are out of range for 2Mbps.

Conversely, only 38.7 per cent of households in Northern Ireland can reach speeds of over 8Mbps, with 29.1 per cent able to connect at 2-9Mbps and 32.2 per cent out of range of 2Mbps. Although some industry analysts have criticised Lord Carter's proposals, Mr Johnson said that investing in 2Mbps broadband now could accelerate the development of much higher speeds in regions where that might not otherwise have happened for many years.

However, he also warned that in order to achieve the predicted 32Mbps connections for 90 per cent of UK homes, the government needs to take decisive action. He said: "It might seem a big step today, but I think that it's one of the best things we could do to restructure our economy as we emerge from the financial crisis."