The United Kingdom (UK) is very advanced in Information technology (IT). Yet it still lags behind the United States in Internet usage and successful IT companies. Although the UK was part of the IT revolution in the last several decades, they have not advanced as quickly in internet usage or in IT development as the US has.

 The UK does have several Science and R&D parks run by their universities. These institutions create some important innovations in IT. Yet they have not reached the heights of Silicon Valley in the United States (US). One reason for this is that there is not as much of a venture capital market as with the US. The UK has investors that are much more conservative as well. In addition, the UK is very conservative in growing their companies.  Many would rather sell their star product to a larger foreign company than to grow it into another Intel or Microsoft. This, too, leads to less venture capital
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 The UK is using the Internet as tool for business.  They have the second highest international broadband rate in the world. Yet access to the Internet is very expensive because of the high taxation on phone service. This has lead to the digital divide in the UK, where citizens with higher income have more Internet access than those with lower incomes do. The UK government, through many policies incepted in 2000, is trying to change this digital divide.

 The UK is one of the most advanced IT countries in the world.  They develop both hardware and software products, yet they have not reached the status of the US.  This is because they are behind in their deployment of high speed Internet connections. It is also because of their conservative views on investment and growth in the IT sector, although this is beginning to change as Europe is beginning to look at the UK as a center for IT development.
 
 

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