Ed Whitacre, AT&T?s chairman and chief executive, warned on Monday that internet content providers that wanted to use broadband networks to deliver high-quality services such as movie downloads to their customers would have to pay for the service or face the prospect that new investment in high speed networks ?will dry up.?

?We have to figure out who pays for this bigger and bigger IP network,? said Mr Whitacre, who was in New York ahead of AT&T?s annual presentation to investors and analysts on Tuesday. ?We have to show a return on our investments.?