Lies, damn lies, and broadband statistics

New research from the ITU suggests the UK isn't doing badly in terms of mobile internet adoption. Research two months ago from consultancy NetValue places us near the bottom of a European broadband table. Who's right?

First, you'll note, these two pieces of research are a case of apples and oranges - not really comparing like with like. But allowing for the slightly different focus, isn't it strange that one month we're in a tech backwater, the next teaching some supposedly cutting edge economies a thing or two?

It seems that almost week to week conflicting research is released. The headline figures for things such as server sales from the likes of Dataquest, Forrester, IDC et al don't vary that much - these figures are measurable and the researchers in question able.

But figures about broadband penetration or rate of adoption of multimedia wireless services are much harder to calculate and compare.

Matters aren't helped when a country's media invariably chooses to concentrate on the negative. Many people living abroad are often surprised to find something similar going on overseas - Americans complaining about poor customer service levels or Japanese about lack of innovation, for example. All but the most arrogant beat themselves with the 'falling behind the rest of the world' stick to avoid complacency.

So what do the latest ITU Mobile/Internet index figures really tell us? They certainly show this UN unit has done the metrics but, after all that, is Portugal (at 19) really more advanced in terms of mobile and internet convergence than Japan (20)? Is the UK (8) really higher than Finland (12) or just a place behind broadband Shangri-La South Korea?

It's all still highly debatable and anecdotal research makes it even harder to tell just which countries are making the most progress.

The ITU research does, however, make a couple of very good points. For one thing, a company's wealth is far from the only measure of how infrastructure and services are being rolled out. The rise of places such as China (at 47), the Dominican Republic (41) and Peru (39) shows that.

The other is that there is no guaranteed success. An early leader can fall back and for others success can come over a short period of time these days. But then this is what the ITU would like nations' business leaders and politicos to think.