It looks likely that consumers who want to be at the forefront of the network upgrade may have to pay more, based on the experience in other countries.

On top of that, the company's 21st-century network upgrade has fallen behind schedule by more than a year, analysts say.

Passengers face years of overcrowded trains and dilapidated rolling stock as plans to expand and upgrade the network are cancelled or put on hold.

Once the internet investment bubble burst, the telecom network upgrade cycle was deferred for years (perhaps for a decade).

They want the corporation to share the cost of upgrading the network to cope with the increased workload, which has been estimated at 831 million.