Press & PR

A spokesperson from telecoms industry regulator Ofcom has speculated that consumers may end up paying for high-speed broadband upgrades.

The news follows a number of recent project announcements by telecoms providers that aim to deliver internet connections capable of 100Mbps speeds.

Ofcom spokesperson Jeremy Olivier asserted that Britain will need to upgrade its existing broadband infrastructure to meet the demands of consumers using high-bandwidth services such online video streaming and networked gaming.

Currently, however, he argues that internet service providers (ISPs) are reluctant to pay for the new networks, adding that consumers would "have to pay to build this".

A number of online services are ballooning in popularity and many people are discovering that they can make cheap calls using relatively low bandwidth with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services like Vonage.

The announcement by Mr Olivier follows an Ofcom statement in December last year asserting that ISPs wanted to delay upgrading existing networks until demand for high-speed services had increased.

Vonage's V-Plan 1 uses an existing broadband connection to allow users to make unlimited inclusive calls throughout the UK for just £5.99 a month.