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Does every UK resident deserve broadband?
No - and here's why...

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 26 May 2005

Does everyone deserve broadband and a mobile phone? The EU has announced it's going to be pondering the question in the next few weeks.

Currently, European Union member states have no obligation to ensure each and every citizen has access to a mobile phone or broadband internet access. Today, however, the EU has called for contributions to the discussions on whether governments should have to provide connectivity to their citizens.

According to the EU, there's no need for governments to step into the mobile market just yet as it believes today's mobile market is cheap enough to make sure no would-be phone owners are excluded due to cost.

An EU report into the question concludes: "The evidence demonstrates that the competitive provision of mobile communications has resulted in consumers already having widespread affordable access to mobile communications."

Broadband, on the other hand, is still too much of a minority technology in the EU's eyes - it estimates just 8.8 per cent of Europeans connect over a fat pipe - to warrant any governmental interference.

"Broadband has not yet become necessary for normal participation in society, such that the lack of [it] implies social exclusion," the report said.

While broadband might be too undersubscribed and mobile too oversubscribed to necessitate a universal service obligation, the EU hinted it might revisit such regulation in the future should voice over IP become Europeans' telephony of choice.

"If voice telephony service moves increasingly to an IP environment, this would create an internet-like model, whereby anyone with a broadband connection could choose between a range of competing voice service providers. In such a scenario, the provision of telephone service as an access service would become ubiquitous, and the focus of universal service could evolve towards the provision of an affordable broadband access link," the report said.

Despite the decision to keep universal service obligation as they are for now, the EU is currently in the process of debating its forward looking policy, including the questions of whether both infrastructure and service should be covered and how any such obligations should be funded.