Universal Service Obligation

Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom can designate universal service providers who must offer defined services throughout the UK at an affordable price. BT and KCOM (formerly Kingston Communications) are the designated Universal Service providers, a designation that dates back to a Universal Service Notification issued in July 2003, with their specific Universal Service Conditions since amended several times.

The obligation was extended to broadband following the Digital Economy Act 2017, which gave government new powers to create a broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO). The government set the design of the broadband USO so that, once implemented, everyone in the UK would have a legal right to request an affordable connection of at least 10 Mbps download speed from a designated provider, regardless of where they live or work, up to a reasonable cost threshold.

The broadband USO design set a per-premises cost threshold of £3,400, intended to enable coverage of around 99.8% of premises, with consumers outside that threshold able to get a satellite connection or pay the excess cost themselves — mirroring how the universal right to a landline telephone connection has long worked. The scheme was designed to be funded by industry rather than public funds, with uniform pricing so USO customers do not pay more than customers served commercially for a similar service.