Progresso

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report says 60% of its member countries net users are now on broadband.

The report said countries that had switched to fibre networks had the best speeds at the lowest prices.

In Japan net users have 100Mbps lines, 10 times higher than the OECD average.

Japan's price for broadband per megabit per second is the lowest in the OECD at $0.22 (0.11p), said the report. The most expensive is Turkey at $81.13 (£40.56).

In the US, the cheapest megabit per second broadband connection is $3.18 (£1.59) while in the UK it is $3.62 (£1.81).

Subscribers to Japan's fibre networks can also upload at the same speed they can download, which is not possible with ADSL (broadband over a telephone line) and most cable subscriptions.

CHEAPEST ENTRY LEVEL BROADBAND PER MONTH* Sweden $10.79 Denmark $11.11 Switzerland $12.53 US $15.93 France $16.36 Netherlands $16.85 New Zealand $16.86 Italy $17.63 Ireland $18.18 Finland $19.49 *Source: OECD. Figures for October 2006