High-speed broadband to be legal right for UK homes and businesses

Government says internet providers will be legally obliged from 2020 to meet user requests for speeds of at least 10Mbps

British homes and businesses will have a legal right to high-speed broadband by 2020, the government has announced, dismissing calls from the network provider BT that it should be a voluntary rather than legal obligation on providers.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said only a universal service obligation (USO) would offer certainty that broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps would reach the whole of the UK by 2020.