UK consumers are some of the earliest adopters of new communications technologies, according to new research by Ofcom.

They are among the best connected for broadband, mobile and digital TV and the UK has seen the fastest growth in smartphone take-up. UK consumers are also enjoying lower prices for communications services than many consumers across the world, according to Ofcom's fifth International Communications Market report.

Take-up of communication services across the world is continuing at a rapid pace, despite the recession, with consumers less likely to cut down on services, particuarly broadband, than they are on other areas such as holidays.

UK households have comparatively high levels of take-up of communications services, with among the highest take-up of landlines, fixed broadband connections, mobile connections and digital TV at the end of 2009.

Germany just beat the UK to claim the highest take-up of landline services, while Italy has the highest mobile take-up (with 95% of the population owning a mobile phone). However, the UK is behind other countries in the adoption of VoIP services with only 5 subscribers for every 100 people. Although the UK did see an average 27% annual increase in VoIP subscribers between 2006 and 2009.

Across most countries, the desktop PC is still the most popular device used to access the internet at home, followed by the laptop. But in the UK the opposite is true with laptops being the most popular device used to access the internet at home, used by 69% of internet users.

Mobile internet is also popular with people in the UK with 29% of internet users saying they use their mobile to access the internet at home. According to Ofcom's research, the UK saw the highest growth in smartphone take-up in the past year with a 70% rise in subscriber numbers between January 2009 and January 2010.

While downloading mobile apps varies little across countries, use of mobile mapping and direction services has grown fastest in the UK (86% increase since 2009) with nine in every 100 people in the UK using these services.