FarrPoint, an international digital consultant from Edinburgh, Scotland, recently released its International Digital Connectivity Readiness Index that rates the G7 nations on a variety of factors that it believes defines a counties success in implementing digital technologies. FarrPoint says it consults with 4G, 5G, NTN, digital connectivity, enterprise networking, and technology-enabled care. The G7 nations include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States.

The analysis ranked each country on a scale of zero to one hundred on twelve different factors that contribute to overall digital readiness. The report ranks the U.S. as tied with Germany for second in overall readiness with an overall score of 83 – behind number one UK, with a rating on 84. Italy was seventh with a rating of 74.

Looking at individual rating is interesting and verifies some of the issues that are widely discussed about the state of U.S. broadband.

• Japan got a rating of 100 for Gigabit Connectivity. France was close behind with a rating of 97. The U.S. was last in this category with a rating of 48, with the second lowest rating for Germany with a 62.
• In the category of Decent Fixed Connectivity, France was last with a rating of 82, while all of the other countries had ratings between 91 and 94.
• When looking at 4G Connectivity, four countries – Canada, France, Germany, and the U.S. got a rating of 100. The lowest rating was Italy at 88. I’m curious about the 100 rating for the U.S. since the FCC just announced a $9 billion 5G Fund to bring cellular coverage to rural areas that have none.
• The U.S. was number one for 5G Connectivity with a rating of 82. Germany and Japan were close behind the U.S., with the other countries lower, and the lowest being Italy with a rating of 57.
• The report combined the above four categories to create a rating for Digital Connectivity Infrastructure. The leaders were Japan (94) and Canada (93). The U.S. was next to last with a rating of 87.
• In assessing Online Households, the leaders were Canada and the UK with a rating of 89. The U.S. was fifth with a rating of 84. Interestingly, Japan was sixth with a rating of 79 even though the company had a 100 rating for gigabit availability.
• In the category of Digital Skills, the leaders were Germany and the UK at 78, with the U.S. third at 76.
• Another category is Online Security. No country was rated as great, with ratings ranging from 67 for France to 77 for Canada. The U.S. was rated at 71.
• There was also a close knit grouping of ratings for Online Wellbeing. Canada led this category with a rating of 76 The U.S. and U.K were second with a rating of 72.
• An interesting category was Accessible Public Services. The U.S. led this category with a rating of 93, followed closely by Japan and the UK.
• In the category which is the most glaring weakness for the U.S, we ranked low for Affordability, with rating of 56. The lowest rating was Japan at 37, and the highest ratings for affordability were in Germany (80) and the UK (79). The U.S. dropped from a rating of 60 in 2023 – indicting that broadband is becoming less affordable – perhaps due to the end of the ACP program.
• There was a category for having a thriving Digital economy, and the U.S. and UK led this category with a rating of 92. Lowest was Italy (66) and Canada (69).
• The final category was Innovation. The U.S. led this category with a rating of 91. There was a big gap to the lowest countries of Italy (52) and Canada (53).

Most ratings were similar to FarrPoint’s 2023 ratings. The biggest one-year changes were UK’s 5G Connectivity (58 to 68), France’s 4G Connectivity (90 to 100), France’s Accessibility of Public Services (78 to 87), and the U.S. Gigabit Connectivity (41 to 48).