If government services are going to move onto the internet, broadband must be seen as vital, one expert has said, which could create job opportunities for IT contractors.

Edd Dawson, editor of broadband.co.uk, has said that home broadband connection is "essential" for people to benefit from the services the government is increasingly delivering online.

"Even if it's not directly to people's houses, the government does put a lot of effort and money into making sure that there is internet connectivity available to people, like in libraries," he added.

The Broadband Forum announced that 2010 was a landmark year for broadband connections, with subscriber figures growing and a total over more than 55 million lines connected during the year.

After hitting the milestone half billion mark in July 2010, by the end of the year a total of 523,066,022 subscriptions were seen in the UK.