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Universal service

Universal service ensures every EU resident can access basic communications services, including voice communications and a connection to the Internet, at an affordable price. In practice, it means that everyone with a reasonable request can have a phone line in their home and/or find a payphone in public places when they need to.

The Universal Service Directive established the principles of universal service based on the need to maintain a safety net for all citizens to access basic communications services of a reasonable quality and reliability, and at an affordable price, following the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in 1998. This could not be ensured by competition law alone.

It guarantees that citizens can get a connection to the public communications network that allows voice calls, faxes and data communications from a fixed location. Besides ensuring that publicly available telephone service (such as making and receiving national and international calls, including access to emergency services) are available over the connection provided, it also ensures that a sufficient number of payphones are available in public areas. Each country must also make at least one comprehensive directory enquiry service and telephone directory of all subscribers available to all end-users. These services must be made available at a specified quality to all end-users in the territory, regardless of their geographical location.

The Commission reviews the set of basic communications services every three years. One condition (which is necessary but not sufficient) for a new service to be considered as a “basic communications service” is that it must be considered essential for social inclusion, i.e. it should be used by the vast majority of people/households in the EU.

People with disabilities

In the case of disabled users and people with special needs, the Directive obliges Member States to take suitable measures to guarantee equivalent access to, and the affordability of, all publicly available telephone services. Such measures could include making public pay telephones accessible to the disabled and providing text/video-relay telephones and services for deaf or speech-impaired people.

Affordability, tariffs and quality

In order to ensure access to services for people with special social needs or on low incomes, Member States may provide tariff options or packages different from those normally offered to consumers on a commercial basis. Moreover, users should be able to monitor and control their expenditure by benefiting from special facilities such as itemised bills, the possibility to selectively block certain calls, for instance high-priced calls to premium services, means of pre-payment or payments phased over time. However, consumers must support some of the costs of the service. Moreover, while those who do not pay their bills can be protected from immediate disconnection in particular cases (for instance during a dispute over high bills for premium-rate services) they cannot expect to keep a phone line indefinitely. Quality is another key element monitored by national regulatory authorities, which may take measures where deemed necessary.

Financing

Providing a basic set of communications services to all end-users comes at a cost. Therefore, the Universal Service Directive allows universal service providers to be compensated either from public funds or through a cost-sharing arrangement between operators if it is deemed that by complying with the universal service obligations they incur a loss or suffer net costs that creates an unfair burden.

Member States are free to go beyond the minimum requirements laid down in the Directive, but any additional obligation cannot be funded by a levy on telecom providers.
 

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