World's fastest broadband launched in Japan

The world's fastest consumer broadband offering has now become available to some users in Japan, it has emerged.

Japanese internet service provider (ISP) J:com is behind the 160Mbps service, which is believed to be the highest speed currently available for consumers.

The ISP is offering access to the service for the price of around £42 to upgrade an existing modem and then a monthly fee of £35 per month.

To enable the speeds, J:com has used technology similar to that which Virgin Media recently introduced to trial a 50Mbps service.

This is being taken as a positive sign that the UK ISP's recent assertions that it could be able to deliver a service of between 100 to 150Mbps within the next few years could in fact prove a reality.

Virgin Media's chief executive Neil Berkett told BBC News that its fibre-to-the-cabinet network roll-out could even provide speeds of up to 200Mbps.

However, Mr Beckett said there are not presently the necessary "returns" on the market for providing such a high-speed service to consumers.