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.

　　昨天公布的一份联合国报告显示，美国在手机和网络使用率方面均落后于其它发达国家。

　　在这份由联合国电讯管理处编撰的“信息与通讯技术发展指数”排行榜上，美国下滑六位，降至第17位，被日本(第12位)、德国(第13位)和新西兰(第16位)等国赶超。

　　国际电信联盟在报告中称，截至2007年，超过80%的美国人拥有手机账户，而在2002年这一比例还不足1/2。

　　美国拥有电脑和宽带的家庭比例也分别升至70%和60%。

　　虽然美国人亚历山大•格拉汉姆•贝尔发明了现代电话，互联网也发端于美国，但在所有前沿科技的普及率上，美国却落后于北欧国家。

　　其中，瑞典的手机和互联网普及率最高。截至2007年，瑞典的国内手机用户比其人口还要多。在这个斯堪的纳维亚国家，超过80%的家庭有电脑，几乎相同比例的家庭有宽带帐户。

　　韩国名列排行榜第二位，丹麦、荷兰和冰岛位列其后。排在该榜前十位的国家还包括挪威、卢森堡、瑞士、芬兰和英国。

　　目前美国近四分之一的家庭拥有固定宽带账户，近五分之一的人拥有2002年后面世的手机宽带帐户。

　　在手机和上网支出方面，美国位列第二，排在新加坡之后，卢森堡之前。该报告称，美国人平均每月的手机和上网支出略多于15美元，固定宽带的月支出不到20美元。

　　这一支出仅占普通美国人月收入的0.4%至0.5%。在发展中国家，这三项支出中的任何一项都可占到月平均收入的72%。