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The Update Service will cost from £7.95 per quarter, and upload new maps to users' devices every three months. Typically, each quarterly update will see "thousands of new miles of roads," claims the company.

The move may be the first sign that the company is migrating to a subscription-only service, rather than its current business model where users can buy a unit for a one-off fee and use

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it for an unlimited period of time, despite not receiving updated information about new roads.

Tele Atlas, the company which provides map data to TomTom, is actually a subsidiary of the navigation company, so subscription-based updates of map data have the chance to become a particularly valuable source of revenue.

"The world's road infrastructure changes up to 15% each year and with TomTom's Map Update Service... users can now also keep up with these changes, providing them with even more accurate and up-to-date navigation," says TomTom's managing director, Corinne Vigreux.

TomTom currently offers free updates via a PC to users in the first 30 days if map data changes, as part of its "latest map guarantee". The company also has a system called Map Share which allows users to make alterations to maps on the fly, and upload these to an online community where they are made available to other users.

TomTom was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.