Press Release: Telecoms: the current ‘universal service’ safety net of the EU still works well, say stakeholders

The European Commission on 11 April 2006 adopted a Communication containing the 'Report regarding the outcome of the Review of the Scope of Universal Service in accordance with Article 15(2) of Directive 2002/22/EC'. This report was a review of the scope of EU universal service rules and summarised replies to a public consultation based on the Commission’s 24 May 2005 Communication on the same subject. The main findings were that consumers already had widespread affordable access to mobile communications within their home countries, and so far only a minority had high-speed internet connections, which meant that the cost of extending universal service obligations to these services would exceed benefits to users.

• Primary Source

European Commission: COM(2005) 203: Communication ... on the Review of the Scope of Universal Service in accordance with Article 15 of Directive 2002/22/EC http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0203en01.pdf

European Commission: COM(2006) 163: Communication from the Commission ... Report regarding the outcome of the Review of the Scope of Universal Service in accordance with Article 15(2) of Directive 2002/22/EC, 7.4.06 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/info_centre/communic_reports/universal_service/com_2006_163_final_en.pdf

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