Mandy applies MSO pressure

It's reported that Lord Mandelson has summonsed the heads of the major mobile operators to a summit so that he can force agreement on the delivery of the Minimum Service Obligation (MSO) of at least (up to) 2Mb broadband for all in the UK by 2012 - and to see if it can be brought forward and done more cheaply.

The mobile operators are the key to filling in the 'notspots' where broadband does not currently reach, and Mandelson's agenda seems to be to force the mobile companies to come to agreement on using additional RF spectrum to deliver the MSO.

ITProPortal erroneously states that the MSO was supposed to be funded by the government's proposed (but seemingly now binned) 50p per month broadband tax on fixed line phones. That was actually allocated for the rollout of Next Generation Broadband networks, with the MSO to be funded by remaining monies from the digital switchover.

At least it's a bit of variety from Mandelson having to defend himself from allegations that he is acting as the pawn of the copyright holders in forcing ISPs to take punitive action against repeated file sharers of copyrighted content.