Cisco said that the UK is ranked 18th and is behind Belgium, a country whose only claims to fame include inventing the potato chip and the fact that it was used as a highway by Germans to invade France.
The third annual study from Saïd Business School at Oxford University looked at broadband quality in 72 countries and 239 cities
Only one in five countries are prepared for the Internet "applications of tomorrow", but that is an improvement compared to only one country the whole world in a study in 2008, the report said.
More than half of the countries surveyed have conquered the digital quality divide with less evident differences between the broadband quality inside and outside their main cities. This is an improvement of 58 per cent in just one year.
Many emerging economies are 'leapfrogging' by focusing on bringing the best broadband to their cities, acknowledging the impact on the economy, the report said.
Mobile broadband quality has improved significantly, with 10 per cent of mobile broadband users already enjoying similar quality experiences as those with fixed-line broadband.
An average household now needs more than 2Mbps and is consuming about 20GB of data per month. A smart and well connected home needs more than 20Mbps of bandwidth and consumes up to 500GB of online content per month.
The top ten are:
1. South Korea
2. Hong Kong
3. Japan
4. Iceland
5. Switzerland. Luxemburg, Singapore
6. Malta
7. Netherlands,
8. United Arab Emirates, Qatar
9. Sweden
10. Denmark