UK Ranks 10th in Global ICT Index

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has revealed the latest ICT Development Index (IDI) which is an indication of how advanced 154 countries worldwide when it comes to technology.

UK ranked 10th this year ahead of China, US, Germany, Japan and France. Sweden, South Korea and Denmark made up the top trio. 

The IDI is made up of a number of variables, namely access to technology, households with a computer, literacy levels, the prices of telecommunication services etc.

It was in this last category - known as the ICT Price basket tool - that UK ranked the worst at 14th when prices for mobile and fixed broadband and telephony were compared. 

The penetration of mobile broadband worldwide was surprisingly high at 5 percent compared ot 6.1 percent for fixed-line. Internet penetration reached a quarter of the world's population.

The report also revealed that 60 percent of the world's inhabitants are using a mobile phone with roughly 4.1 billion live accounts recorded last year. A spectacular increase from the 1 billion mobile users 6 years ago.

This surge is attributed largely to the poorer populous countries where the price of mobile phones has fallen tremendously over the past decade. There are now three times more mobile phone users than landline users.

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