Broadband universal service
Broadband universal service, also known as "universal service obligation" (USO) or "universal broadband service", refers to government efforts to ensure all citizens have access to the internet. Universal voice service obligations have been expanded to include broadband service obligations in Switzerland, Finland, Spain and the UK. Universal service obligations are required because of the technical limitations of data transport in traditional telephone lines, particularly for connections located miles away from exchanges. FTTH deployment is increasingly a component of meeting universal service obligations, for example, the United Arab Emirates has not introduced a USO as all premises in the country have access to FTTH and are thus capable of very high connection speeds. Switzerland was the first country in the world to provide broadband universal service in January 2008, followed by Spain and Finland each guaranteeing 1 Mbit/s. The UK followed by announcing a universal service obligation of 10 Mbit/s in 2020 for every home in Britain. Taiwan started broadband universal service in 2007. The USA has proposed measures that would make broadband available to all citizens, but under pressure from telecommunications companies, has not implemented them. Background The term universal service was introduced in the early twentieth century. In many