Europe's former monopolies have been keen to expand their mobile operations not only to boost revenue but also to allow them to offer bundled fixed, mobile and broadband services.

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The report is the seventh that Ofcom has produced and it logs complaints about broadband, fixed telephone services, Pay TV and pay monthly mobile services.

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But a daunting task remained: to replace the declining fixed-line revenue with mobile and broadband services in one of Europe's most competitive markets.

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But with NTL due to change its name to Virgin Media next year, NTL also has UK commercial broadcaster ITV in its sights as a takeover target, part of its plans to offer television as well as broadband, fixed-line and mobile telecommunications services.

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Many fixed-term contracts for mobile phones, broadband and landline services have small print in their terms and conditions allowing prices to be put up, with at least 30 days' notice.

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Interestingly, the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions now outnumbers fixed ones by two to one, and mobile internet services showed the biggest growth rates in 2011: 40% worldwide and 78% in developing markets.

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