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MOBILE-PHONE companies and broadband suppliers such as Vodafone and Virgin Media will be asked for the first time to share with BT the cost of providing basic phone services, including public payphones, under plans being considered by Lord Carter, the communications minister.

In a blueprint for the telecoms industry to be unveiled this month, he is expected to scrap the requirement for BT to run a phone line into every home in the country.

Instead, Carter is likely to oblige the industry as a whole to provide a basic broadband service to every citizen who wants one, using either fixed-line or mobile technology.

That could pave the way for BT to rip out its century-old copper network in some of Britain’s least-populated regions.

In his Digital Britain review, Carter, former chief executive of the telecoms regulator Ofcom, will announce a radical update of BT’s universal service obligation (USO), spreading many of its requirements among rivals.

“We are at a tipping point in terms of broadband availability,” Carter told the Broadcasting Press Guild last month. He sketched out a vision of “a country universally connected to video-capable broadband of two megabits per second (Mbps) – that is a base starter for 10”.

At the moment, BT bears the sole responsibility for providing a basic phone line and dial-up internet access at affordable prices to all citizens – a legacy that dates back to before 1984 when BT was a state-run enterprise with monopoly status.

BT will welcome many of Carter’s proposals. Before embarking on a £1.5 billion spending plan to run high-speed fibre-optic lines into 40% of Britain’s homes, chief executive Ian Livingston asked for an assurance that BT would not be required to run copper wires into ever newly-built house as well.

However, BT is wary of Carter’s assertion that mobile broadband can provide a suitable alternative to fixed-line internet over copper wires, at least not for many years to come. It is in favour of a USO to cover broadband access – a plan that is gaining traction in Brussels – but only if its cost is shared.

Ofcom estimates the cost to BT of the current USO is between £57m and £74m a year. That sum is neatly matched by the calculated benefits, such as promoting its brand on payphones, of £59m-£64m. BT queries the latter figure because of the negative publicity it attracts when it tries to close down some of its 24,000 loss-making phone boxes. It has long argued that mobile operators should contribute because their popularity has hit the profitability of payphones.

Carter’s vision leans in part on systems already running in France and Finland. In France, all telecoms providers are subject to an industry levy that funds a basic service for hard-to-reach and disadvantaged consumers. In Finland, the operator Telia-Sonera was last year granted permission to dismantle its copper network in the most sparsely populated parts of the country, to be replaced by long-range mobile coverage.

Its Communications Ministry set a national goal of guaranteeing Finns a 1Mbps broadband connection in 2010 and a 100Mbps connection to most households in 2015.

Carter is also keen to finalise a new structure for digital radio and address Channel 4’s plea for financial help so it can carry on producing public-service programming. RTL, the owner of rival station Five which is examining plans to buy state-owned Channel 4, could let the government keep a golden share in the business if a deal were agreed.

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