ISP's are warning that the price of surfing the web may have rise, in order to cover the costs of new anti-terrorism laws, due to increased data retention sought by the UK's Home Secretary, Charles Clarke

Last week, Mr Clarke persuaded European leaders to agree to rules requiring Internet and telecoms companies to retain data for around a year. The data held would be used to help agencies track down suspected terrorists and Mr Clarke claimed that this was a "material factor" in the investigation into the London bombings.

ISPs are understandably worried. One ISP, AOL currently retains 3 months worth of its subscribers Internet data. Increased data would result in increased cost and as an AOL spokesman said, "Someone will have to pay for this - either the taxpayer or the consumer though higher prices."

Estimates by the ISP put costs at around £23m in implementation costs, and £8m per year in maintenance. If costs cited are relative only to the UK then the costs break down to £10 per user in implementation and 29p per user per month for maintenance (based on a reported 2.3m AOL UK subscribers).