We have worked for regulators and operators in over 15 countries to measure the net cost of a universal service obligation (USO).
Our methodology follows a well defined structure:
- identify areas uneconomic to serve
- identify customers uneconomic to serve
- estimate cost of serving those customers – access costs, transmission links, transit costs and revenues collected
- adjust for the overlap between these two figures – some uneconomic customers will be located in uneconomic areas.
Relevant experience
Example projects include:
- A ground-breaking project for a Western European regulator to estimate the costs of the incumbent’s USO. This was the first study of its kind and used a rigorous methodology
- For an Australian operator, we provided support in the industry consultation process for determining a methodology to estimate the net costs of providing universal service and establishing a mechanism to fund its provision
- For a Western European fixed operator we conducted an audit of the calculation of the net cost of universal service that the incumbent prepared for the regulator
- For the Dutch ministry, we determined the costs of universal service provision, both now and in the future, based on detailed data supplied by the incumbent
- For the Swedish telecoms regulator, Post & Telestyrelsen (PTS), we calculated the cost of universal service in Sweden, including precise estimates of the net cost for a range of service components.
