Britain has ranked sixth in a telecoms usage ranking, suggesting it's falling behind connectivity leaders, such as the US and Scandinavian countries.
The Connectivity Scorecard, created by London Business School professor Leonard Waverman last year, measured 50 countries on dozens of indicators, including technological skills and usage of communications technology.
Researchers said the new indicator - already used by several countries in developing innovation strategies - showed there was plenty of room for improvement in infrastructure and usage in all countries.
Professor Ilkka Lakaniemi - head of global political dialogue at telecom network gear maker Nokia Siemens Networks, which commissioned the study - said the focus has been on infrastructure. But he added investment in teaching was essential if countries wanted to boost competitiveness.
Countries in eastern and southern Europe - including Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland - took the last spots on the list of 25 developed countries.
Malaysia, helped by good co-operation between the public and private sectors, topped the list for developing countries, with four more countries bypassing last year's leader Russia.
"Malaysia has invested heavily in infrastructure and due to this, it has attracted more foreign companies than its neighbors have," Lakaniemi said.
Following are the ratings for top 10 "innovation driven economies" measured in the study, scale 1-10:
US 7.71
Sweden 7.47
Denmark 7.18
Netherlands 6.75
Norway 6.51
Britain 6.44
Canada 6.15
Australia 6.14
Singapore 5.99
Japan 5.87
Following are the indexes for top 10 "efficiency and resource driven economies," scale 1-10, but not comparable with indexes for innovation-driven economies.
Malaysia 7.07
Turkey 6.71
Chile 6.59
South Africa 5.76
Mexico 5.39
Russia 5.37
Argentina 5.14
Brazil 5.12
Colombia 4.08
Botswana 3.98
