The first company to partner 3 in the endeavour is Yell.com, whose ads will appear on the dashboard. Users will be presented with the company’s branding and a search window each time they get online with their dongle.

So how will consumers respond if this becomes widespread? That depends.

As a telephone directory Yell is a pretty useful service to have in your browser and we can’t really see why anyone would object. However, were broadband suppliers to take ads from more obtrusive, divisive brands – McDonalds, for instance, or Nestle - people might feel disgruntled.

Let us know how you feel about it in the comments section below.