Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

I do not want to bore the committee with facts, but the USO regime has been discussed in detail under the European communications code. The European Commission has made it very clear that it does not view a USO for broadband as the silver bullet for fixing member states' broadband market failures. It is clear in the code, and ComReg has confirmed this to us, as it would be the overseer of the USO in the copper context for voice and the regulators would be tasked with overseeing this in future, that commercial investment with public sector investment, that is, the Government, should be the main vehicle to solve the market failure identified. The code is quite clear that a universal service obligation for broadband, which is not currently in any legislative process in Europe - there is no standard or anything else other than what may or may not be done for functional or adequate Internet access-----