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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce to the concepts related with universal service and the papers in the special issue about “Re‐thinking universal service in the digital era”.Design/methodology/approachThis special issue aims to provide support to the policy process with regard to universal service in a digital context. The papers in the issue highlight developments that are shaking up the current universal service model. They consider universal service from a set of different dimensions, encompassing both demand and supply side considerations. Also a comparative outlook draws lessons from a representative set of existing regulatory models.FindingsThe paper finds that the foundations and concept of universal service are experiencing a profound transformation as we enter into a new phase of information society development. A new set of policy goals and tools is the main consequence of this change.Originality/valueThe paper presents a timely account of the universal service policy debate.

Summary Kuczura (1973) introduced the use of the Interrupted Poisson Process (IPP) as a simplified model for overflow telephone traffic, and derived some of its equilibrium properties. This paper presents the time‐dependent factorial‐moment generating function for the IPP. From this function are derived the joint moments of the numbers of calls in progress at any number of instants in time. In particular, the covariance of the numbers of calls in progress at any two instants leads to a formula for the variance of scan‐measured traffic. The results make it possible to calculate the moments of various estimators of the variance of traffic. The paper also gives a new decomposition of interarrival times, and displays one limiting form of the IPP as a batch arrival process with geometrically distributed number of arrivals per batch. All these results are of perfectly general applicability. They add to the repertory of analytically tractable queuing processes. Likely fields of application are sickness insurance, equipment maintenance, transportation, neurophysiology and nuclear physics.

PurposeThis paper aims to give conclusions from the papers in the special issue about “Re‐thinking universal service in the digital era”.Design/methodology/approachA summary of the themes, trends and new concepts about universal service is compiled from the varied viewpoints introduced in the issue. The editors also appraise the mobile and broadband universal service candidates under the different perspectives in the issue, point out a number of questionable assumptions and gaps in the universal service stories, and touch on the international currents of influence in universal service policy. Finally, a succinct vision of a universal service policy for Europe is outlined.FindingsThis special issue aims to provide support to the policy process with regard to universal service in a digital context. The papers in the issue highlight developments that are shaking up the current universal service model. They consider universal service from a set of different dimensions, encompassing both demand and supply side considerations. Also a comparative outlook draws lessons from a representative set of existing regulatory models.Originality/valueThe paper provides a summary of the main avenues for the upcoming universal service policy debate.