Broadband News
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Spain plans universal broadband by 2011
18 Nov 2009 | 16.03 Europe/London
First Finland and now Spain have declared their intention to make broadband a legal right for all citizens.
Broadband will become part of the universal service obligation (USO) in Spain from 1 January 2011. From that date everyone in Spain, regardless of where they live, will have the right to connect to the internet at minimum speeds of 1 Mbps, and at “affordable rates", Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian told delegates at the International Forum of Digital Content (FICOD) in Madrid on Tuesday.
There’s a good reason that many countries are considering adding broadband to their USO regulations, according to Marcela Perez Sirio, a consultant with Ovum. The European Commission has been discussing the modification of the Universal Service Directive (USD) to include broadband access, and is likely to take action once the review of the EU telecoms regulatory framework is complete. If this goes ahead in 2010 as expected, then all EU countries will have to transpose the obligations from the USD into their national USO regulations, she says.
Incidentally, Switzerland was the first country to include broadband in its USO, specifying a minimum connection speed of 600 kbps upstream and 100 kbps downstream from January 2008.
Broadband will become part of the universal service obligation (USO) in Spain from 1 January 2011. From that date everyone in Spain, regardless of where they live, will have the right to connect to the internet at minimum speeds of 1 Mbps, and at “affordable rates", Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian told delegates at the International Forum of Digital Content (FICOD) in Madrid on Tuesday.
There’s a good reason that many countries are considering adding broadband to their USO regulations, according to Marcela Perez Sirio, a consultant with Ovum. The European Commission has been discussing the modification of the Universal Service Directive (USD) to include broadband access, and is likely to take action once the review of the EU telecoms regulatory framework is complete. If this goes ahead in 2010 as expected, then all EU countries will have to transpose the obligations from the USD into their national USO regulations, she says.
Incidentally, Switzerland was the first country to include broadband in its USO, specifying a minimum connection speed of 600 kbps upstream and 100 kbps downstream from January 2008.