European Commission wants broadband 'for everyone'
A leaked proposal has revealed that the European Commission wants broadband to be a right for all and, furthermore, wants national governments to pay for the costs.
Basic access to the internet has been part of the EU Universal Service Directives since 2010, however, the EU Commission, according to the leaked documents, wants to keep up with the increased demand for superfast broadband and is looking at changing the rules, giving broadband access to all of its members.
The leaked proposal comes off the back of the UK government already deciding to overhaul its old Universal Services Obligation (USO), replacing it with a new one that gives British citizens a minimum speed of 10 Mbps. Former prime minister David Cameron called for this change in last year’s October Address, and then again when a public consultation on the new USO took place in March and April this year, with the new rule being added to the draft Digital Economy Bill in May.
From the consultation period, the government received 196 responses from a wide range of consumers, ISP providers, businesses and MPs. The government said of the response: “It is evident from the responses received that there is considerable support for universally available, fast, affordable, broadband access.
“Many noted that people are increasingly seeing the provision of broadband to be as essential as other basic services so that people can participate fully in society. The majority of responses recognised that there is a particular problem with broadband connectivity in hard to reach rural areas, and suggested that the lack of access is hindering productivity and growth."
In other countries in the European Union, some have taken different approaches, with Spain having a USO that only requires the government to provide “functional Internet access”. However, depending on economic and technological advances, the government can update the USO when required. In Finland, the requirement for internet speeds is required to be at a minimum 2 Mbps. However, ISP companies can charge expenses for deployment and installation costs.
To counter the different technological and economic situations in each EU country, the draft document has said that it will set up a basic USO. This means that countries can amend their USOs dependent on needs and provide "a basic list of online services usable over the broadband connection to be further specified by member states in light of capacity needs at the national level”.
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(Image: Bidgee)
