2 January 2008
The way in which Britons use telephony could be revolutionised by advances in broadband technology, the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) has said.
According to the association, demand for such 'next-generation' services such as VoIP and online TV technology will lead to networks being upgraded.
A spokesman for ISPA commented: "Broadband has made…web technologies such as streaming media, such as telephone over the internet [possible].
"There are developments going on all the time to improve connectivity and that has a consequence of driving technological innovation on the content and applications side."
Advanced, super-fast fibre-optic networks are already in place in many Asian countries - and are under construction in France and Germany.
However, the extreme cost - estimated to be in the tens of billions - of installing such networks nationwide has proved a major stumbling block to uptake of the technology in the UK.
With this in mind, regulators Ofcom announced last month that it would try to make conditions as easy as possible for potential investors in next-generation networks over the coming years.
However, the watchdog also warned that the government must give financial backing to the schemes - and that the economy would suffer in the long term if the UK fell behind other nations in its broadband standards.