The mobile phone operator said it can deliver on Lord Carter's plan for universal access but opposes plans for a rights agency

Mobile phone company Orange has offered to set up a UK-wide broadband network to meet the ambitions of Lord Stephen Carter for universal access — in return for a share of the radio spectrum owned by Vodafone and O2.

Orange, which has more than 1 million residential broadband users in the UK, made its proposals in the first batch of submissions to the communications minister's interim Digital Britain report, which outlined the government's communications vision for broadband access to the future of digital radio.

But it has also emerged that there is little support within the internet industry for Carter's plans to defeat illegal online file-sharing through the creation of a rights agency which would bring together the internet service providers (ISPs) with the music, TV and film industry.

The attitude of the ISPs is summed up by the submission of Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk, the UK's third-largest broadband provider. It said: "It appears to us that the rights agency is 'an answer looking for a question'. It is a vehicle without a clear remit or responsibility."

In his interim Digital Britain report published in January, Lord Carter called for everyone to have access to broadband – at speeds about 2Mb per second – by 2012. To realise his ambition, which means getting faster access to an estimated 1.5 million households – he suggested using the UK's mobile phone networks to plug gaps in the existing fixed-line infrastructure.

As part of this process, Lord Carter has met with the UK's five networks to thrash out a deal in which Vodafone and O2 would share some of the spectrum they have, which is close to the analogue TV signal, so it can be used for broadband in rural areas.

If a deal cannot be done by April, he has threatened to take back some of their spectrum by force. One network, 3, said in its submission that Carter's ambitions did not go far enough and all available spectrum should be considered "in the round".

Orange, however, has told Carter that by 2012 it will build his required network, which it will share with rivals, if it is given a slice of O2 and Vodafone's airwaves and its existing 3G licence is "extended indefinitely". It also wants new a high-frequency spectrum to be granted to the mobile phone industry alongside part of the so-called 'digital dividend' which will become available once the analogue TV signal is switched off in 2012.

In its 68-page submission, Orange blasts the idea of a rights agency. The company, owned by France Telecom, is one of the ISPs that has been sending out warning letters to persistent file-sharers under a deal brokered by government last year.

But like many ISPs, it stresses that "the real key to combating unlawful file-sharing and copyright infringement online is (a) education and (b) the development and popularisation of legitimate and compelling content distribution business models."

The media companies have been pushing for a so-called 'three strikes and you're out' approach to file sharing, where persistent offenders have their service cut off. "This proposed solution, which is still strongly advocated by the music industry despite public statements to the contrary, cuts across basic principles of common law, user rights and ISPs' legitimate commercial interests and would fail a straightforward cost-benefit analysis," Orange said.

As for the idea of a rights agency funded by industry, which would be backed by legislation against persistent illegal file-sharers, the company told Carter it "does not think it is appropriate for it to fund a rights agency that would only be to the benefit of the rights-holders. This would ultimately become an 'anti-piracy tax' on all consumers, whether or not they infringe. Orange does not understand why one industry should be asked to fund the protection of another industry's commercial interests."