IT contractors may find that more and more companies are looking to set up acceptable usage policies for staff internet use.

According to David Palmer, senior product manager for networks and connectivity at Star, the changing way in which the internet is used is causing some it managers to look at restricting access.

It is not necessarily the content that is concerning managers, but instead the amount of bandwidth being used on streaming videos and television.

Mr Palmer says that many companies are struggling to find the right balance between allowing employees to use the internet freely, while not impinging on the network's capabilities.

"During certain periods people start reporting that a network is slower or an internet connection is slower, then when we look into it we find that their bandwidth capacity is full," he said.

Hopes of having greater bandwidth available were struck a blow recently, when the government revised its target of having a universal service of at least 2Mbps across Britain by 2012, instead moving the deadline back to 2015.