This is possibly going to be very badly timed. A lot of users are going to get very confused.

Essentially in the UK we have a lot of free or very cheap Internet services. We also have a lot of people - Apple, the BBC, many media providers - offering us rich media experiences through the Web.

Only, the cheap service providers are finding that they can't sustain a full broadband download service at the price their customers are going to want. (Of course they're not, maintaining enough bandwidth for a high-definition movie isn't cheap.)

The most likely thing is that prices will increase eventually after a load of customers get slung off an ISP's service. We'll leave to one side that this will disenfranchise a load of people just when everyone's talking about flexible working and working from home, although do give that some thought.

The problem is going to be that many of the people affected will have become accustomed to a cheap Internet service and given the time at which the crunch is going to happen they're going to associate any increase with the current financial climate. Those that don't absolutely need the service will probably consider dropping out; those that do won't have the option.

But a whole load of them will expect the price to go back down once the financial climate is healthier. I'm braced for waves of disappointment when that fails to happen.

Details are on the BBC news site here.