Lamps used to light homes could soon provide wireless broadband services to households, researchers from Germany have suggested.

Jelena Vucic and her team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecoms at the Henrich-Hertz-Institute in Germany are set to showcase how such developments could be possible at an upcoming conference in San Diego.

The scientists have suggested that visible frequency wireless, which could be generated in a room by flickering lights in unison, would offer a higher bandwidth than Wi-Fi technology.

However, the rate of modulation could be set so the human eye is not aware of the flickering, although only LEDs would be suitable.

Discussing the work, Ms Vucic said: "The advantage is that you'd be using light that is already there."

News of the potential developments in wireless technology has come after the NextGenUs initiative revealed it has provided Wi-Fi services in the two North Yorkshire villages of Newton and Stape.