What constitutes “functional internet access”
With the news of UK Government money going into providing home access to all learners aged 9 to 19 homes by 2011, comes a reviewed EU report which calls for universal access to broadband by 2010. Currently, the EC’s Universal Service Obligations (USO) demand that all citizens who want them should be able to get access to basic telephone services, and this includes a clause that stating that a fixed line be of sufficient quality to “permit functional internet access”. In the UK this has been interpreted to mean a line that can support a dial-up speed of 28.8 kilobits per second. Hardly an up-to-date specification and one which we’ve moved beyond even in telephone boxes. Apparently, the EU reviews the USO every three years, and figures state that, from 2003-2007, broadband use in member nations tripled to 36% of households with an annual growth rate of 20%. Such growth however is very uneven, and hampered by whether the population could even get broadband. In countries like Denmark, Luxenbourg and Belgium, 100% of the population are able to get broadband, while in Rumania, the figure is only 40%. Even in Germany and Italy, 12% of the population can’t get broadband even if they wanted to.
Image credit: Jem Stone
Tags: broadband, homeaccess
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