The government says Ofcom’s European Broadb Scorecard shows that the UK leads the EU’s five biggest economies on “most measures” of coverage, take-up, usage choice for both mobile fixed broadb.

On price, the UK “performs well”, says the the government. The Ofcom report finds that the availability of superfast broadb has increased in the UK from around 60 percent at the end of 2011 to 73 percent at present.

This has taken the UK from third to first for coverage among the “EU5”, consisting of , Germany, Italy, Spain the UK.

The UK also has the highest broadb take-up at 83 percent, the highest proportion of people to have bought goods online over a year (77 percent).

In addition, the UK has the highest weekly usage of the internet at 87 percent, the lowest proportion of people who have never used the internet (8 percent).

On pricing, the UK is either number one or two, or in the top three when it comes to the cheapest deals for various broadb packages, according to UK communications regulator Ofcom.

Communications minister Vaizey said: “Britons already do more business online than any other European country, the news that we now have the best superfast coverage of all five leading European economies is testament to the progress made to date.”

The European Broadb Scorecard is Ofcom’s second report for the government on the coverage, take-up, usage, price choice of fixed mobile broadb services in the UK, relative to other European countries.