UK comes 10th in global IT league table

UK is tenth globally regarding ICT infrastructure and access

The UK is the world's 10th most developed country for its use of information and communications technology (ICT), according to a new benchmark study.

The ICT Development Index (IDI) from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) combines 11 indicators to give a single measure which indicates how advanced the 154 countries compared in the report are with respect to ICT.

Sweden is ranked in first place, followed by South Korea, Denmark and the Netherlands. The UK is judged to be ahead of many of its main competitors, such as China, France, Germany, Japan and the US.

But the UK fares less well for the cost of ICT services.

Another new tool introduced by the ITU is the ICT Price Basket, which " measures and compares ICT prices across countries, ranking them based on the relative price of the ICT services, giving a comparison of service affordability." The ITU said that "the cost of making a phone call or surfing the internet can influence the use of these technologies".

Using the ICT Price Basket measurement, the UK comes in 14th, well behind the US, but in front of France, Germany and Japan.

"Globally speaking, most progress has been made on ICT access, which includes fixed and mobile telephony, internet bandwidth, and households with computers and internet," said the ITU report.

"[But] in terms of ICT use, which includes the number of internet users, fixed and mobile broadband, progress has been much slower."

The ITU report also showed a shift from fixed to mobile cellular telephony, with more than three times more mobile cellular subscriptions than fixed telephone lines globally.