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The United States is falling behind other advanced economies in its use of - and access to - telephone and Internet technology, according to a UN report published yesterday.
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The United States is falling behind other advanced economies in its use of - and access to - telephone and Internet technology, according to a UN report published yesterday.
The US slipped six places to 17th on the UN telecommunications agency's ICT Development Index. It was leapfrogged by countries such as Japan (12), Germany (13) and New Zealand (16).
By 2007, more than 8 in 10 Americans had cell phone accounts compared with just under half the population in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said in its report.
The number of households with computers and Internet access also increased, to 7 in 10 and 6 in 10 respectively.
But the country where Alexander Graham Bell invented the modern telephone, and which developed what has since become the Internet, lagged behind northern European countries on all fronts.
Sweden, which was ranked first, had more cellular accounts than inhabitants by 2007. More than 80 percent of households in the Scandinavian country had computers and almost as many had Internet connections.
South Korea was second, followed by Denmark, the Netherlands and Iceland. Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Finland and Britain completed the top ten.
Almost a quarter of US households now have fixed line broadband accounts, while almost 1 in 5 Americans have cellular broadband accounts - a technology nonexistent in 2002.
In a measure of how much of people's income went toward making phone calls and surfing the Web, the United States came second after Singapore and ahead of Luxembourg. Americans, on average, pay slightly more than $15 each for monthly mobile and broadband connections, while fixed lines are priced at just under $20 a month, according to the report.
This represents between 0.4 and 0.5 percent of the average American's monthly salary. In developing countries, the cost of any of these three technologies can be as high as 72 percent of average salary.
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(Agencies)
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昨天公布的一份聯合國報告顯示，美國在手機和網絡使用率方面均落后于其它發達國家。
在這份由聯合國電訊管理處編撰的“信息與通訊技術發展指數”排行榜上，美國下滑六位，降至第17位，被日本（第12位）、德國（第13位）和新西蘭（第16位）等國趕超。
國際電信聯盟在報告中稱，截至2007年，超過80%的美國人擁有手機賬戶，而在2002年這一比例還不足1/2。
美國擁有電腦和寬帶的家庭比例也分別升至70%和60%。
雖然美國人亞歷山大?格拉漢姆?貝爾發明了現代電話，互聯網也發端于美國，但在所有前沿科技的普及率上，美國卻落后于北歐國家。
其中，瑞典的手機和互聯網普及率最高。截至2007年，瑞典的國內手機用戶比其人口還要多。在這個斯堪的納維亞國家，超過80%的家庭有電腦，幾乎相同比例的家庭有寬帶帳戶。
韓國名列排行榜第二位，丹麥、荷蘭和冰島位列其后。排在該榜前十位的國家還包括挪威、盧森堡、瑞士、芬蘭和英國。
目前美國近四分之一的家庭擁有固定寬帶賬戶，近五分之一的人擁有2002年后面世的手機寬帶帳戶。
在手機和上網支出方面，美國位列第二，排在新加坡之后，盧森堡之前。該報告稱，美國人平均每月的手機和上網支出略多于15美元，固定寬帶的月支出不到20美元。
這一支出僅占普通美國人月收入的0.4%至0.5%。在發展中國家，這三項支出中的任何一項都可占到月平均收入的72%。
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（實習生許雅寧 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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