Ofcom USO Review , no BB in the USO Package

Sponge Bob

I am not dissing any regulator who , at this point in time, does not feel that BB should be part of the USO . The USO applies to the BT copper network only in the UK and basically sez you are entitled to a phone and 28.8k dialup, no matter how remote you are.

Our USO applies to the eircom copper network and is riddled with getouts and thats before eircom sit down and refuse to abide by it and before Comreg start their 'we can do nothing ' bleating

Campaigners in the past have urged the regulator to include broadband as a USO because of its importance to the national economy. Much of the clamour for a USO came at time when broadband availability was limited. But ever since investment in rolling out broadband has helped make it available to more than nine in ten of the UK population, calls high speed services to be made universally available have become less vocal.

According to Ofcom, imposing a USO for broadband at this time "would be undesirable" since the broadband market is "still developing". And since the Government is determined to take a "technology neutral approach and let the market decide which technologies are most appropriate for different circumstances", it believes doing nothing is the best course of action.

Of course you can adopt that course when 99% of households can get DSL in the morning (its about 65% of households here) and where BT will fix up your line to ensure you get it (Eircom refuse to here) and where one of the most rural parts of the UK USO service area has Universal 512k BB already with some wireless filling the gap , (like Northern Ireland for example or Yorkshire IIRC ) .

Also see section 1.16

1.16 The obligation on BT and Kingston to provide a connection upon reasonable request encompasses the provision of a narrowband connection capable of ‘functional internet access’ FIA. Guidelines on FIA were issued in 2003 which said that users should be able to expect connection speeds of at least 28.8 kbit/s. It also set out measures that universal service providers should take in response to complaints about data speeds. The Guidelines have been beneficial and Ofcom has concluded that no significant changes are needed at this time. In particular, the benchmark minimum speed will remain at 28.8 kbit/s.