Dial-up internet connections will be a thing of the past within three years, it has been predicted.

According to figures from price comparison site uSwitch.com, just four per cent of residential internet connections will use dial-up modems by 2010.

The technology will die out in the face of falling prices for quicker broadband connections as well as increased access to broadband nationwide, Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch.com, predicted.

"There is no way that slow, cumbersome dial-up connection will have a place in the home of the future where entertainment will be underpinned by the broadband connection," he said.

Mr Weller's projections were born out by last week's figures from the Office of National Statistics which showed that 88.4 per cent of UK internet connections are now broadband - up 2.2 per cent from the same time last year.