The Office of Communications (Ofcom) plans changes to U.K. univer...

commercial conditions and allows benefits to reach those who need them. Britain has 2 USO providers -- British Telecom (BT) for most of the country, Kingston for the Hull area, both required to provide public call boxes. Ofcom decided to allow district, metropolitan or equivalent councils to veto telcos’ decisions to remove an area’s last phone box, and extended a consultation period for proposed removals from 42 to 90 days. It will issue consultation guidance and a leaflet on the rules for phone box removals. To aid customers with disabilities, Ofcom said, it will create a stakeholder advisory panel on text relay. It intends to propose changing providers’ mandates for services to disabled customers. Ofcom left untouched provisions letting BT charge consumers for the excess cost of installing Internet connections and setting the minimum speed at 28.8 kbps. BT and Kingston USO funding will remain the same, but Ofcom will do a cost-benefit analysis on USO next year and could alter funding if USO provision becomes an unfair burden, it said. European Commission review of its e- communications regulatory framework, including the Universal Service Directive, “will be significant for the future evolution of the USO,” the regulator said.