The review of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) has recently been debated in the European Union (EU). Under discussion there was the extension of the current universal service definition to include broadband access, for which some theoretical and empirical support exists. In fact the...

Although the phenomenon of the internet only emerged about 25 years ago, it is hard to imagine life without it. More and more people use the available connectivity for both professional and private life, and the number of services grows continuously. This increasing demand for capacity and speed...

In recent years, the preference for purely private funding and ownership of telecommunications networks has given way to a 'new wisdom' that some form of public funding is now necessary if faster and more capacious Next Generation Networks (NGNs) are to be constructed in a timely fashion. The...