The UK will have to implement a new communications infrastructure if it is to provide citizens with faster internet, it has been claimed.

Edd Dawson, the managing director of broadband.co.uk, said that there had been a recent drop in the average broadband speed across the country.

He commented that the slowdown in connectivity was widely attributed to the rise in popularity of streaming media.

Mr Dawson added that he did not know whether or not this was serious, but that either way, it highlighted the need for a more robust network.

He continued: "There is only so far that speeds over copper wire can be pushed, at some point a replacement is required. Fundamentally the UK needs to start moving to the next level soon."

According to the UK Broadband Speedtest for this year, the average connection reached a download speed of 3.325mbps, marking the third consecutive monthly drop in speed from July's average of 3.609mbps.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.