The cost of getting access to broadband on a tablet or smartphone could rise as carriers struggle to deliver new networks a senior industry executive has warned.Kate McKenzie Group Managing Director of Innovation at Telstra said recently that data from the increased use of smartphones and tablets doubled last year but revenues for carriers didn’t.

GFK who does not measure Apple sales or sales made via JB Hi Fi said that smartphone sales in locations that they do measure was $2.3 billion in 2011 and that a further billion was spent on tablets.

Another observer said “GFK data is not accurate and one can easily add another billion to tablet sales as Apple has over 70% market share of the tablet market”.

Hakan Eriksson the CEO of network infrastructure company Eriksson said that carriers like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone must find new ways to charge for access to their networks as the demand for gadgets and devices grows.

He said that click revenue services such as the one Telstra has with Microsoft and the upcoming Smart TV content boom were good examples of how carriers can increase their revenue streams.

He also warned that carriers could start charging for uploading content to their network as downloading content.

He said that in the future content providers might charge fees for additional download capacity and share revenue with their network partners.