Britons are among the earliest adopters of new communications technologies,...

Britons are among the earliest adopters of new communications technologies, the Office of Communications said Thursday. Its international communications market report compared take-up, availability and use of broadband, landlines, mobile phones, TV and radio in 17 countries. Findings included: (1) U.K. households are among the best connected with regard to landlines, mobiles and fixed broadband, but they're behind other countries in use of VoIP services. (2) Although in most places the desktop PC is still the most popular way to access the Internet at home, followed by the laptop, the situation is reversed in Britain. The percentage of users who access the Internet via mobile phones at home in the U.K. is second only to that of Japan. (3) The U.K. had the highest growth in smartphone take-up, with a 70 percent rise in subscriber numbers from January 2009 to January 2010. However, Italy has the highest number of smartphone users overall in European countries compared. (4) Britons use their mobile phones for social networking more than those in other countries, with the number of users highest among 18-24 year-olds and the 55-64s. The U.K. and Spain lead in digital TV use, Ofcom said. Fifty-nine percent of British households have HD-ready TV sets, followed by the U.S. (57 percent), but fewer subscribe to HDTV services, it said. The U.S. had the highest number of homes with digital video recorder subscriptions at the end of 2009, followed by the U.K., it said. Apart from Ireland, the U.K. has the lowest number of local and regional TV services compared with other European nations and the U.S. U.K. digital radio take-up was the highest among the countries surveyed, and lowest in Japan and the U.S., it said. The Internet accounted for a larger proportion of advertising spend in the U.K. than in any other nation surveyed, but Japan leads the world in mobile advertising spend per capita, it said. While TV and radio advertising has declined, TV and radio subscriptions went up despite the economic downturn, Ofcom said. Telecom revenue fell in seven of the 17 countries surveyed, it said. In broadband, the U.K. was the only nation where fixed broadband revenue fell in 2009 due to increased take-up of lower cost, local loop unbundling-based broadband services as part of double- and triple-play bundles, it said. Other countries studied were Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Sweden.