The governments Communications Minister, Stephen Carter, is expected to propose that the legal requirement for BT to provide a phone line to every UK home be extended and include shared responsibility by some of the operators rivals too (e.g. Virgin Media, T-Mobile etc.).

Carters 'Digital Review', which is due to surface later this month, will propose that the industry as a whole be required to support Universal Service Obligation's (USO). The update would also demand that operators deliver a basic broadband service, be it via mobile or land-line, to every home:


Presently BT takes on the sole responsibility for supplying a phone line to every UK home, which must be capable of supporting basic dialup Internet speeds and costs the operator between £57m and £74m a year. The new proposals would effectively free BT from absolute responsibility and help to cut its costs.

However we would question the ability of Mobile Broadband to provide at least 2Mbps to UK homes, real-world coverage is far more variable with sub-1Mbps speeds still being the norm. Similarly even BT has trouble reaching many remote areas via land-lines with anything above 1Mbps. Pushing faster speeds into such locations can often be both a technical and economic nightmare.

Never the less such proposals would be a major step in the right direction and should be welcomed, though some serious thought must be put into precisely how the result can be reliably achieved without excessive cost. This will be far from easy.