EU beginning to see broadband Internet access as a universal entitlement

In the EU, if the majority of citizens are using a telecoms service, explains this BBC News article "EC call for 'universal' broadband", the EC rules - known as the Universal Service Obligations - dictate that the service must be available for all.Thus wherever you live in the EU you can get a fixed phone line, and such phone lines must be of sufficient quality to "permit functional Internet access", which, in the UK is taken to mean a dial-up speed of 28.8 kilobits per second. (The Universal Service Obligations also provide for things like production of a telephone directory and the availability of pay-phones.)

Now that such a high proportion of EU citizens have broadband the EU is reviewing the Universal Service Obligations to see if "functional Internet access" should now mean access to broadband.  Conceivably the Obligations may change in 2010. The push from this seems to be coming from Viviane Reading, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, who gave quite an on-the-ball speech today on social networking sites and their economic and societal importance.