It turns out aeroplane wifi at 35,000ft is faster than Britain's home broadband

SURFING the web above the clouds is eight times faster than trying to do the same in 1.25 million UK households.

Wifi aboard the Boeing Dreamliner rarely dipped below 7Mbps

Aeroplane wifi has come a long way. State-of-the-art jets are being fitted with wireless internet, allowing passengers to access emails, tweets and Facebook updates.

NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com recently took a flight across the atlantic and – with our laptop powered up – decided to put this in-flight internet to the test.

And the results shock us.

Our flight – aboard one of Boeing's new Dreamliner planes – took us from San Francisco to London, and our expectations of being able to work online in the sky were very low.

But after a quick log-in process (and an expensive 24hour rate) we found ourselves enjoying reasonable speeds throughout the 5,300 mile journey across the globe.

NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com performed a series of tests to see how good the wifi really was.

Amazingly, we rarely dipped below 7Mbps – almost four times faster than many UK residents get from fixed broadband at home.

Although that's plenty fast to stream Netflix, NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com has some troubling getting the popular on-demand video service to load – after the US service couldn't identify our region as we crossed the pond.

The current minimum set for UK internet access is around 28.8 kilobits a second, but the aim is to provide speeds of at least 2Mbps to all British homes.

Some 1.25 million UK homes currently have a broadband speed of 2Mbps or less. However the UK average is much higher, sitting at around 22.8Mbps.

The Government has already set aside as much as £1.6billion to increase speeds.

Passengers can access emails, tweets and Facebook updates from inside the Boeing Dreamliner

The current minimum set for UK internet access is around 28.8 kilobits a second

Prime Minister David Cameron last year stated: "Access to the internet shouldn’t be a luxury; it should be a right — absolutely fundamental to life in 21st century Britain.

"That is why I’m announcing a giant leap in my digital mission for Britain.

"Just as our forebears effectively brought gas, electricity and water to all, we’re going to bring fast broadband to every home and business that wants it. 

"That’s right: we’re getting Britain – all of Britain – online and on the way to becoming the most prosperous economy in the whole of Europe."

But while some homes in the UK struggle towards 2Mbps, NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com was able to download an entire music album in a little over a minute.

We consistently saw speeds of 7Mbps during the flight

The Government says that they aim to provide super-fast broadband, speeds of 24Mbps or more, for at least 95 per cent of UK premises by 2017.

An increasing number of airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Etihad offer wifi in the sky.

British Airways is also trialling the service on some of its long haul jets. Prices start from around £14 for 24 hours.

So if broadband can be pushed to this limit on a plane flying at over 500mph, why are so many Britons still lagging behind?

Broadband is now an essential feature in our homes and Britain's broadband needs to be better, especially as our internet access now lags behind other countries – even the Ukraine is providing better superfast broadband.

Recent data from the Ookla online speed test showed that London's average download broadband speed ranked 26th out of 33 European capital cities.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: "It's not good enough that millions of homes are so poorly served by their broadband provider with speeds that just don't live up to what was advertised.

"Broadband is an essential part of life these days so people shouldn't be persuaded to buy a package which is never going to live up to expectations."