Americans may look with envy on the super-fast Internet connections available in South Korea, Japan and parts of Europe, but they can take consolation from a new study that concludes that the U.S. makes better overall use of its telecommunications.

The U.S. ranks No. 1 in a study published today led by professor Leonard Waverman at the London Business School that compared 16 developed countries not just by the quality of their communications infrastructure but also how consumers, business and government use it.