Where does the UK come in the mobile internet league?

NEWS Denmark and Hong Kong are the most advanced countries when it comes to converged mobile internet services, according to a comprehensive new report. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) studied over 200 economies, ranking them by 26 separate criteria related to infrastructure (50 per cent of the total weight), usage (25 per cent) and market structure (25 per cent). Behind Hong Kong and Denmark - which scored 65.88 and 65.61 out of 100 respectively - came Sweden, Switzerland and the US. The UK came in at eighth in the ITU Mobile/Internet index, just below South Korea and ahead of the likes of Canada, Finland, Germany and Japan. However, the ITU's Dr Tim Kelly, head of the organisation's Strategy and Policy Unit, warned in a statement that though it takes "no great leap of imagination to believe the convergence of mobile communications and the internet will produce something big, it may take longer than we think". The other great caveat about this new era of anytime, anywhere communications is that there is what the ITU calls a "chicken and egg situation" whereby would-be investors want proof there is a market for mobile internet services - but operators need to have networks up and running before this can be proved. The keys to the future, the ITU says, are the timely deployment of 3G networks, affordable and adequate internet-enabled handsets, and unrestricted and non-proprietary mobile internet content. The ITU report also shows there are countries such as the Philippines that do well on the mobile front but lack internet facilities, and India, which has good internet access but relatively little mobile deployment. The 240-page ITU report is called 'Internet for a Mobile Generation'.