The UK government has apparently confirmed that every UK resident will have legal access to internet speeds greater than 10 Mbps under the regulatory USO (Universal Service Obligation) by the year 2020. As per sources, this regulation is expected to be made official by next year, though it would reportedly take at least a period of two years to officially launch the minimum expected broadband speeds.
For the record, the UK government had earlier, dismissed a proposal put forward by the BT (British Telecom) for improving the internet speed of the broadband network across the urban as well as rural regions. As per the new legislation, broadband service providers will have to provide high speed network access to any person in the country as demanded, irrespective of his or her residential status.
According to Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK, nearly 1.1 million subscribers are unable to access broadband speeds of 10 Mbps. Industry analysts have claimed that the UK is far behind many of the European nations in providing fiber to the households that increases the internet speeds. Earlier, the regulatory & competition authority for telecom in the UK had stated that nearly fifty-six thousand offices & households of North Ireland are unable to access internet at the necessary speeds.
The Cultural Secretary of the UK has stated that the government of the country has been working toward providing effective telecom infrastructure since a while now, which will facilitate high-speed internet connectivity to the consumers in the digital world. Reports have also confirmed that the fixed line superfast broadband connectivity in the country offers a speed of twenty-four Mbps or greater for nearly ninety-five percent of UK households and businesses. Through its Broadband delivery program, the government apparently, is making every effort to raise this figure to ninety eight percent by 2020.