Should broadband be part of universal service obligations

There is growing concern that some groups without access to high-speed broadband networks, e.g. those residing in rural and remote areas, will be unable to benefit from online education, health and government services, etc. Such concerns have led to arguments that universal service obligations (USOs) should be upgraded to include access to broadband. This paper reviews the arguments and concludes that, at this stage of broadband development and diffusion, there is no convincing case for USO-type mandates. Since the case for broadband USOs should be intermittently revisited, the paper proceeds, nevertheless, to explore what would be involved in a systematic review of this issue