The Rationale for Universal Access to Digital Services
Main Article Content
Keywords
Telecommunications, Universal Service, Universal Access, Public Policy,
Abstract
The regulated telecommunication markets found in many countries often include the social principle that telecommunications infrastructure should be reasonably available to all at fair and affordable rates. In Australia, this concept of universal service aims to ensure that all people, wherever they reside or carry on business, should have reasonable access, on an equitable basis, to standard telephone services and payphones. The hallmark of the universal service regime has been the reasonable availability of public payphones and the subsidised installation of telecommunications infrastructure at premises nationwide to provide standard telephone services. With the advent and ongoing evolution of broadband technologies a new need has arisen and that is for everyone to have reasonable access, on an equitable basis, to specified digital services, including egovernment services. This paper presents a position and identifies future research necessary to support the transition from the universal service regime to a universal access regime that enshrines the principle of ensuring that federal, state and local egovernment and other specified digital services are reasonably accessible to all, on an equitable basis, wherever they work or live.
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References
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ACCC, (2015b), ACCC Fixed line services decision leads to one-off uniform fall in access prices of 9.4%, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-fixed-line-services-decision-leads-to-one-off-uniform-fall-in-access-prices-of-94, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ACMA, 2014, Communications Report 2013-14, Australian Communications and Media Authority, Melbourne.
AT&T, (2015), “One Policy, One System, Universal Service”, American Telephone and Telegraph, http://www.corp.att.com/history/milestone_1908.html, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ABS, (2013) Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2012-13, Cat no. 8146.0.
ABS, (2015a), Mobile Handset Subscribers, Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2015, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8153.0Main%20Features5June%202015?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8153.0&issue=June%202015&num=&view=, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ABS, (2015b), Type of Internet Connection, Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2015, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8153.0, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
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CA, (2008), Universal Service Obligation Review, 8 February 2008, http://www.commsalliance.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/1960/CommsAlliance-Subsmission_USO_Final.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2014), Carrier Licence Conditions (Networks supplying Superfast Carriage Services to Residential Customers) Declaration 2014, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2014L01699, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2015a), Telecommunications Act 1997, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00540, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2015b), Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00390/Html/Text#_Toc427849452, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2015c), Trade Practices Act 1974, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2004A00109, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2015d), Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00327, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
ComLaw, (2015e), Telecommunications (Industry Levy) Act 2012, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00465, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Corner, S., (2012), Universal Telecommunications Services: A Brief History and Analysis of the Issues Surrounding the New Australian Legislation on the Universal Service Obligation, Telecommunications Journal of Australia, 62(2), 22.21-22.29.
Darling, P., (2012), Universal Telecommunications Service for the 21st Century, Telecommunications Journal of Australia, 62(2), 23.21-23.29.
Deloitte, (2015), Digital government transformation, Commissioned by Adobe, http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-digital-government-transformation-230715.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
De Ridder, J., (2015), The Future of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), Sydney: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, http://accan.org.au/our-work/research/1132-the-future-of-the-uso, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
DTO, (2015), Digital Service Standard, Digital Transformation Office, Commonwealth of Australia, https://www.dto.gov.au/standard, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
DSS, (2014), Statistical Paper no. 12: Income support Customers: a statistical overview 2013 based on DHS and DVA administrative data, Department of Social Services (DSS), Commonwealth of Australia
FCC, (1934), U.S. Government Communications Act, Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, 19 June 1934, http://uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=48&page=1064, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Fieldgrass, L., & The Brotherhood of St. Laurence, (2011), Mobile Matters: The Youth Advocates Project, Sydney, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, http://accan.org.au/files/Reports/Mobile%20Matters%20Youth%20Advocates%20Project.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Fon, (2015), Fon is the Global WiFi Network, Fon, https://fon.com/, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Given, J., (2008), The Eclipse of the Universal Service Obligation: Taking Broadband to Australians, info, 10(5/6), 92-106.
Goggin, G. (2010). Realising Universal Communications. Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) Conference. Melbourne, https://accan.org.au/files/Reports/Realising%20Universal%20Communications.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Google (2015), Google Fiber, Google, https://fiber.google.com/, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Gregory, M. A., (2014) What’s good for Telstra is good for NBN Co, Business Spectator, 23 October 2014, http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/10/23/technology/whats-good-telstra-good-nbn-co, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Henkin, D.M., (2006), The postal age the emergence of modern communications in nineteenth-century America, University Of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Humphry, J., (2014), Homeless and Connected – Mobile Phones and the Internet in the Lives of Homeless Australians, Sydney, University of Sydney and Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, http://accan.org.au/grants/current-grants/619-homeless-and-connected-mobile-phones-and-mobile-internet-in-the-lives-of-families-and-young-people-experiencing-homelessness, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
IXIA, (2013, December), Quality of Service (QoS) and Policy Management in Mobile Data Networks, White Paper, http://www.ixiacom.com/sites/default/files/resources/whitepaper/policy_management.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Jammulamadaka, A. T., Gregory, M.A. (2010), Infrastructure ENUM implementation in Australia, in TENCON 2010, 2010 IEEE Region 10 Conference, pp. 2304-2309, 21-24 Nov. 2010, doi:http://doi.org/10.1109/TENCON.2010.5685997
McElhinney, S, (2001), 'Telecommunications liberalisation and the quest for universal service in Australia', Telecommunications Policy, vol.25, no.4, pp.233-248.
Mueller, M., (1993), 'Universal service in telephone history: A reconstruction', telecommunications Policy, vol.15, no.5, July, pp.352-369.
Mueller, M., (1997), Universal service : competition, interconnection, and monopoly in the making of the American telephone system, MIT Press, Cambridge.
NBN Co, (2012), Corporate Plan, NBN Co, http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/documents/nbn-co-corporate-plan-6-aug-2012.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
NBN Co, (2015a), Glossary of terms, NBN Co, http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco/documents/glossary.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
NBN Co, (2016), Corporate Plan, NBN Co, http://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/about-nbn-co/corporate-plan/corporate-plan.html, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Newman, L., Biedrzycki, K. and Baum F., (2010), ‘Digital Technology and Use Among Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups in South Australia’, Journal of Community Informatics 6(2) http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/639/582 [Accessed 1 December 2015]
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, (2009), Champion for Digital Inclusion – The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion. London: Race Online 2012 and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. http://parliamentandinternet.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Final_report.pdf , [Accessed 1 December 2015]
PricewaterhouseCoopers, (2012), Digital Efficiency Report, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-efficiency-report/digital-efficiency-report, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
RTIRC, (2015), Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, 2015 Regional Telecommunications Review, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, http://rtirc.gov.au/, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
SACOSS, (2015), SACOSS Cost of Living Update No. 22 March Quarter 2015, South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS), Unley, South Australia, http://www.sacoss.org.au/new-report-calls-concession-re-think-telecommunications, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Telstra, (2015), Telstra Air, Telstra, https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/telstra-air, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Vanston, L.K., Hodges, R.L., (2008), Forecasts for the US Telecommunications Network, Telektronikk 3 / 4.2008, pp. 18-28, http://www.tfi.com/pubs/w/pdf/telektronikk_telecom.pdf, [Accessed 1 December 2015]
Wilson, I., Goggin, G., (1993), Reforming Universal Service: the Future of Consumer Access and Equity in Australian Telecommunications, Consumers' Telecommunications Network, Sydney.
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Published
Dec 20, 2015
Article Details
How to Cite
Gregory, M. A. (2015). The Rationale for Universal Access to Digital Services. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 3(4), 166–184. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v3n4.45
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Public Policy
Copyright Telecommunications Association Inc.
Author Biography
Mark A Gregory, RMIT University
Dr Mark A Gregory is a telecommunication and network engineer in the School of Engineering at RMIT University. He is the General Chair of the International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference.
