iSuppli, a market intelligence company, has predicted that the development of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile technology will lead to costs of roughly £17bn.

The service will allow UK mobile companies to supply customers with super-fast download speeds far greater than those already offered by 3G.

However iSuppli said the cost of the infrastructure needed will spiral from £921m up to a monstrous £17bn by 2014.

Operational 4G is expected to surpass other mobile technologies with upload rates of 60Mbps and additionally it can be used whilst travelling by car or train.

Moreover, the study conducted by the intelligence company found that it would accumulate 303m subscribers globally over the next couple of years.

Senior Director and Principal Analyst for IHS, Jagdish Rebello said:

"While this spending represents tremendous growth in next-generation wireless technology, carriers still will be required to support multiple air interface technologies simultaneously, as the migration to 4G and LTE will not happen overnight.

"In most cases, carriers will need to offer 2.5G, 3.5G and 4G technologies in order to support all customers and roaming customers.

"As a result, semiconductor suppliers must focus on developing effective infrastructure solutions that not only meet the current needs of carriers but also achieve alignment with the 3G/3.5G technology migration paths of the carriers to 4G."

However, the benefits of high speed mobile technology would not be available to UK customers until 2014.