Households with a fibre to the home broadband connection drive three times more traffic than those with ASDL connections, research by the FTTH (fibre to the home) Council Europe has indicated.

The research looked at broadband usage across four European countries and suggested that users with faster connections will use those connections more, as well as finding that average broadband speeds are rising 50 per cent each year.

President of the FTTH Council Europe, Joeri Van Bogaert said: "We expect this to increase significantly as fibre adoption continues to increase across Europe and further services are developed with fibre in mind."

The research was testing Nielsen's Law which states that high end user's bandwidth should grow 50 per cent each year.

Nielsen's Law is similar to Moore's Law, which says that microprocessors will double in speed every 18 months – a 60 per cent growth yearly.

This means that as computer speeds will increase faster than broadband speeds, the limits of a broadband connection will be the deciding factor in internet applications for the foreseeable future.