Universal Access: The Next Killer App

A Discussion Paper for Defining and Maintaining Universal Access to Basic Network Services: Canadian Directions in an International Context. Invitational Workshop Sponsored by Industry Canada and the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. Toronto: 14-16 March, 1996.

• Clueless....
• Solutions for the Small Planet
• International Positions
• The European Union
• The U.K.
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Singapore

Clueless: not just another 90210 pop movie of the mid-90s

"Maybe we need a tax credit for the poorest Americans to buy a laptop. Now, maybe that's wrong, maybe that's expensive, maybe we can't do it, but I'll tell you, any signal that we can send to the poorest Americans that says, 'We're going into a 21st century, third-wave information age, and so are you, and we want to carry you with us.'" (Rep. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives addressing the House Ways and Means Committee, Jan. 1995. [From New York Times, Jan. 5, 1995, excerpted in Edupage, Jan. 8, 1995.]

In reviewing the literature (proposed legislation, policy pronouncements, press releases and reports), disseminated by various governments regarding universal access and service and the information infrastructure, what is striking is how similar it all sounds. It's all very deterministic, oversimplified, and gushingly optimistic. Heralded as a major social revolution, technological and policy pundits claim that connecting via computer will be as ubiquitous as connecting through the telephone, using electricity, and brushing our teeth before bedtime. Admittedly, information that I have culled so far has been that which has been easily accessible over the Web, so in many instances, alternative voices or those of public interest organizations are not well known (with the exception of what public interest groups in the U.S. and Canada have been saying and mobilizing). It is clear that international public interest activities need to be assembled, particularly as the hype around the GII intensifies.

There are subtle variations, of course, although time will tell whether one extremist position will become the de facto policy. Is Singapore's move to regulate political discussion on the Internet by requiring that all Internet service operators and local content providers be licensed under the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) to purportedly 'protect local values' really that different from proposed CDA (Communications Decency Act) provisions of the new U.S. Telecommunications Bill? Will the New Zealand experience in open markets for telecom services be replicated in the U.S.? And, will Canada, whose policies often veer towards the consistency of `melted cheese', mimic the trajectory south of the border?

In any case, here is a list of key (or *buzzzzz*) words concerning what the 'information highway' will do to communities, people, the workplace, and education, culled from various international reports and policy statements:

revolutionize.... enhance.... improve.... reinvigorate.... improve.... rebuild.... expand.... strengthen transform.... create new jobs....

and some phrases commonly used in the literature....

not since Gutenberg... the market.... fostering an entrepreneurial mentality.... developing common regulatory approaches.... new paradigms.... ubiquitous(ly).... competitive marketplace.... empowering capabilities.... lifelong learning.... will create profound effects.... a host of interactive online services....

Indeed, all countries are in agreement that the 'information highway' (what Canada likes to call it), the superhighway (what the U.S. and U.K. like to call it), the I-Way (what business mavens like to call it), or cyberspace (what the journalists and trendoids like to call it) will:

• Enhance and improve the lives of individuals;
• Create lifelong learning opportunities;
• Improve job skills, career advancement, employment opportunities, and professional development;
• Improve democratic participation;
• Enhance cultural and creative opportunities;
• Improve access and communications for individuals with disabilities;
• Create more efficient markets and increase business productivity, etc., etc.

"...boost our international competitiveness, raise our prosperity and quality of life, make our public services more productive and responsive, foster a better educated workforce, and build a more cohesive society." (from Developing Information Highways in the U.K.: The Move to the Information Society ).

"The potential for job creation and growth through the information highway is immense. Telecommunications represents one of Canada's greatest competitive advantages in the global, knowledge-based economy," (John Manley, Canadian Minister of Industry).

"The promise is yet to be met, but unlike the latest whiz- bang toy, hot new sports car, or bell-bottom pants, the Information Superhighway is not a fad. It's here to stay. To be sure, over the years there will be pot holes that need to be filled, bridges to be replaced, new roads, and vehicle destinations we can't imagine today, but the Superhighway and the information that flows within its confines will only get better with age. And in what will seem like the wink of an eye, just like the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, the clothes dryer, and the microwave oven, people will wonder how they got along without it." (Kickstart Initiatives.)

"...It will help strengthen social bonds among our people by electronically linking like-minded people, or those with a common cause or interest. Individuals will be able to form their own communication links -- be it the clan, the reservist unit, the old school tie, a professional society, lonely hearts club or resident's committee. The nationwide infrastructure has the ability to cross geographical and cultural boundaries so that Singaporeans will be able to see and talk to people around the globe -- from their home or office." (Singapore's IT2000, A Vision of an Intelligent Island.)

...by [pick your year: 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001] basic Internet-type services will be widely available to the [pick your country] community through schools, public libraries and homes...

Bill Clinton, President, United States of America: The White House: "NetDay96 is a great example of what volunteer efforts can do for America's schools. Vice-President Gore and I will be here in California on NetDay, joining other parents to install wiring in California classrooms..."

Richard Riordan, Mayor, City of Los Angeles: "Computer technology in our classrooms provides our children with the tools they need to compete in the society of tomorrow."

Joseph Hilson, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Hayward: "The world is changing faster than we can imagine. If our children do not have the tools to learn and compete, they will be left in the dust of competition. We must do everything possible to guarantee their future!"

Larry Ellison, President, Oracle Corporation: "The technological winds sweeping through all world businesses must reach our schools. NetDay is a perfect way for all of California high technology companies to contribute to California's future."

Tsutomu Shimomura, author of Takedown, scientist, San Diego Supercomputer Center: "NetDay does the most important thing: give smart kids access to the Net, where they'll find challenge and excitement beyond their imagination."

Consider also the attention paid to linking up public libraries as access points. I don't disagree with this strategy at all, but I am suspicious that it's used to placate us. After all, public libraries across North America are having their funding decimated, hiring freezes are on, many librarians (predominantly women) themselves are burnout and facing low morale, and many are afraid that technology will deskill them. Where's the money coming from to hook up the libraries? Are librarians be given the opportunity, then, to shape the technology-the design, the content, its use? How can they transform networked tools into enabling tools, and how can the profession be revitalized?

TIRED.............................................WIRED

competition....................................cooperation

deregulation...................................re-regulation

re-engineer.....................................consultation

privatize.........................................co-ops

life-long learning............................conviviality

Solutions for the Small Planet

As an alternative to technocratic disaster, I propose the vision of a convivial society. A convivial society would be the result of social arrangements that guarantee for each member the most ample and free access to the tools of the community and limit this freedom only in favor of another member's equal freedom (Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality, Harper & Row, 1973: 12).

One of the few lone voices in this debate (aside from the very laudable work done by public interest groups such as CPSR, the Benton Foundation, the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable, CPI, P-IHAC, PIAC, IHWG, and so on) is from the European community, which has advocated a more holistic and comprehensive look at the overall social and economic consequences of the effects of new information and communication technologies on institutions, communities, and individuals. This idea of the "information society" aims to examine more thoughtfully the integration of technology onto daily life, and mitigate against a two-tier society where only an elite has access to and can benefit from the new technologies. (see Introduction to the Information Society the European Way.)

For instance, the January 1996 release of the Interim Report, Building the European Information Society for Us All was astonishing for its breadth of attention and acknowledgment to a myriad of social factors influencing the balancing of both virtual and non-virtual participation in the information society, and for the formation of a 'learning society'. Issues surrounding the employment and workplace implications (such as telework); the health ramifications; the potential consequences of the blurring between the public and private spheres; and the broader societal impacts of networked technologies, including the impact on families) was raised, and recommendations made for further study.

But when recommendations for further study are made, (as in the current situation in the U.S., where the new Telecommunications Reform Act mandates that the definition of universal service be decided upon by a joint federal- state board made up of 3 FCC commissioners, 4 state regulatory commission members and one state utility consumer advocate), or in 'Post-IHAC' Canada, will the public and concerned citizens be involved in the debates surrounding universal access and services? In the U.S., the Benton Foundation is urging the public interest and nonprofit community to mobilize, as is The Center for Media Education, which encourages the organization of disadvantaged constituencies.

The following premises with regard to universal service will be assumed:

• universal service is concerned with ubiquity, affordability, and usability
• it is difficult to determine what should constitute a 'basic' package for universal service
• universal service developments are a function of politics, economics, and social values
• universal service is a basic human right
• universal service is needed for effective citizenship
• provision of universal services makes it possible for the social system as a whole to function more effectively
• universal service is a means whereby communion is possible
• universal service depends on collective action and coalition building

A convivial society should be designed to allow all its members the most autonomous action by means of tools least controlled by others. People feel joy, as opposed to mere pleasure, to the extent that their activities are creative; while the growth of tools beyond a certain point increases regimentation, dependence, exploitation, and impotence. (Ivan Ilich, Tools for Conviviality, Harper & Row, 1973, p. 20).

International Positions

The European Union

The liberalization of the telecommunications and information sector sprang from the June 1994 Bangemann Report, Europe and the Global Information Society: Recommendations to the European Council prepared by a high level group of industrialists. This report emphasized the benefits of the information society: "[it has] the potential to improve the quality of life of Europe's citizens, the efficiency of our social and economic organisation and to reinforce cohesion". In order to mitigate against a society of a two-tier society, where some do not have equal access to the new technologies, the report emphasized a process of education, training, and promotion in order to convince European citizens of the necessity and efficacy of using information technologies in their daily lives-in the workplace, through new educational uses, through new global markets, and through interconnection of networks and interoperability of services and applications.

The Bangemann Report recommended that the liberalization of the telecommunications sector be expedited by:

• allowing competition in areas still in the monopoly area;
• removal of noncommercial political burdens and budgetary constraints;
• ending monopolistic practices ("...in future, all licensed public operators should assume their share of public service responsibilities (e.g. universal service obligation and the provision of equal access to networks and services");
• ensuring that a new regulatory environment can allow for full competition.

Insofar as access is concerned, the report reiterated that "the [recommended] actions...will lead to a truly open environment, where access is provided to all players. This openness should find its counterpart in markets and networks of other regions of the world. It is obviously of paramount importance for Europe that adequate steps are taken to guarantee equal access."

In particular, ten applications were recommended:

1. teleworking
2. distance learning
3. a network for universities and research centres
4. telematic services for SMEs
5. road traffic management
6. air traffic control
7. healthcare networks
8. electronic tendering
9. trans-European public administration network
10. city information highways

With respect to universal service, the Green Paper emphasized the importance of maintaining and developing universal service provisions that adhere to a common and minimal set of services and infrastructure across the E.U. Given the swiftly changing nature of technological change, the Green Paper recognized that the definition of universal service must be dynamic and hence reflect these changes.

The following recommendations were made:

• adherence to reasonable and affordable charges for access and use
• high quality of service
• technological innovation
• market players should, in principle, contribute to the financing or provision of universal service
• E.U. member states should work towards both determining the costs of universal service, and finding a way to finance universal service at a national level, taking into special consideration Member States with less-developed networks or resources.

Theme 1: The Scope of Universal Service within the European Union.

How do you assess the technical necessities for universal service in a dynamic marketplace?

What kinds of network access and at what data transmission and rate should be recommended?

In terms of voice telephony services, what features (i.e., touchtone dialing, call identification, call forwarding, itemized billing) should be included as essential, and what should the rates and progress of introduction be for those features considered nonessential?

Should universal service include obligations to provide services at an affordable price to users who move frequently or to the homeless?

What quality of service indicators for universal service should national regulators be required to monitor and publish?

Should leased lines be considered a part of universal service?

What other services (such as ISDN connections, video dialtone) should be mandated as universal service (after 1998).

Affordability:

How do you determine what are affordable services?

What should be flexible and targeted tariff schemes?

Should universal service include selective call-baring (e.g. bar calls to premium rate numbers or international calls)?

Should obligations be placed on operators not to disconnect residential customers (e.g. no disconnection for non- payment, except if evidence of fraud? No disconnection if a customer agrees to barring of certain or all non-essential outgoing calls? What should non-essential mean in that context? (e.g. allowing only local calls? allowing only operator assistance and emergency calls?)

Should universal service include advance warning for customers of excessive or extraordinary usage?

Public Access:

How should public access be defined? p> Should specific goals (such as dates and coverage targets) be set for providing higher speed connections for schools, libraries, hospitals, and community centres?

What are the additional costs of ensuring public access (i.e, training, staff support, etc.).

Six specialised Information Society Working Forum working groups have been set up:

1. The Impact on the Economy and Employment
2. Basic Social and Democratic Values in the Virtual Community
3. The Influence on Public Services
4. Education, Training and Learning in the Information Society
5. The Cultural Dimension and the Future of the Media
6. Sustainable Development, Technology, and Infrastructure

Theme V: The Information Society, Social Cohesion and the Quality of Life recommends that:

the positive potential of teleworking on the community life and its implications for the disabled, children, the unemployed, and the elderly be examined;

research be conducted into how new technologies can increase social participation and benefit community life, and how communities which would find it unlikely to be able to easily access these technologies can be targeted;

an analysis of the social needs of the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled, and women be conducted before policy actions are initiated;

the design of new technologies and how they can more easily accommodate diverse users (such as above) should be initiated;

research into how new technologies can 'reinforce conviviality and avoid isolation' should be instigated.

Theme VI: The Information Society and Regional Cohesion, recommended that:

actions with respect to universal service and information infrastructure development be developed. The broad question broached is how the universal service provisions (USP) as outlined in the European Council Resolution (22 July 1993) can be extended from minimum levels of post and telephony provisions to more thoroughly encompass new and future developments in the convergence of technologies. Given the rapidly changing landscape of technological possibilities, the Report recommended that:

"Rather than getting lost in minimal technical standards, we would argue that the discussion has to get back to the functionality of the services and alternative technologies. As in other areas, we favour here too a much more social and societal dominated debate than the current technological one. From this perspective there is a need to investigate in much greater detail whether in order to avoid exclusion and preserve regional cohesion, the current notion of universal service should not be shifted in the direction of a notion of universal community service, extending universal service provision to incorporate a basic level of access to new information services, but limited in its universality obligation to educational, cultural, medical, social or economic institutions of local communities. Such a community USP concept would in effect mean a return to the historical notion of universality as introduced last Century in the US with the advent of the telegraph. It would guarantee open access to the network and the carrier services and involve, where necessary, public funding for technical and financial assistance."

Insofar as ensuring that the entire E.U. is adequately covered by a community-based USP, the report recommends that:

"There is thus a need for a fundamental rethinking of regional cohesion policies within the framework of the emerging IS, from policies with respect to telecom liberalisation in geographically peripheral countries and regions to the development of programmes tailored to the specific needs of lagging regions. Community Structural Funds should become much more focused, targeted to those areas/regions where the benefits of liberalisation are unlikely to filter through. Such funds should be used in other words more as supporting demand-led regional policies filling in regional black holes. In doing so the regional policy would bring more clearly to the forefront the benefits of the increased transparency of costs in LFRs and become a more effective regional cohesion policy instrument, focusing its support on relatively narrow targets for specific groups in rural or remote areas."

The United Kingdom

"The goal is to provide citizens with access to information and information services, and to improve the ways in which all aspects of government administration affect our lives, so that all citizens share in the benefits of the advances in information and telecommunications technologies. But care must be taken to ensure that there is not a two tier society of 'haves' and 'have-nots', in which only a small part of the population has access to the new technology, is confident in using it, and can fully share in its benefits".

The UK government is committed to providing universal access to its citizens through access at public libraries, community centres, schools, and in rural and remote communities (including Scotland and Wales).

"We need to make sure that the opportunities are not only for the rich. We remain committed to maintaining universal service obligations in telecommunications. Given the variety of technologies being developed, access to Superhighways will be provided in a number of ways. Schools, libraries and other institutions will provide convenient access for many. But the surest way to encourage people to make full use of Superhighways is to make them affordable. Competition has proved itself to be the best way to secure this. In addition, technology is constantly advancing what is possible", from a Speech by Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, to the Institute of Directors Superhighways Conference, 14 June 1995.

• South Bristol Learning Network, supports lifelong learning in the community through a 'CyberSkills' learning program; Office for Standards in Education Reports Database provides inspection reports for all 24,000 state-funded secondary, primary, nursery and special schools in England;
• Highland Regional Council's public access, interactive multimedia units provide access to sparsely populated regions to centralized services, including distance education.

One of their seven fundamental objectives includes access:

"Access: We wish to ensure that participation in the information revolution is available to all, and not just the privileged few. There must be equality of access through an integrated national network which covers all parts of the country, reaching as extensively and affordably as possible, and in which each network system links with all others. We seek both to empower individual citizens as participants and consumers, and also to ensure equal access for the providers of services."

• Open access for the producers of information and the providers of services: "Competitive delivery of content and services along the networks should be based on the American 'any to any' principle."
• Ensuring that every public library become a public access point, financed through public/private partnerships.
• Individuals should be able to rent e-mail addresses through public libraries.
• Network developers should be encouraged to make their systems more accessible to the general public--not just technically, but psychologically: "We should be encouraging the providers to make access easy, through TV remote controls with which everyone is familiar, and by ensuring that information programmes are not dry but fun."

Australia

Five broad recommendations were made with regards to improving access to the Australian education, industry, R&D, and wider communities:

1. The establishment of a not-for-profit consortium involving governments, telecom carriers, industry, and the research and higher education communities, which would provide a national information network for the R&D, higher education, and wider communities;
2. Funding for the development of on-campus networks that facilitate access to Internet-type services for all higher education staff, faculty, and students, as well as reciprocal access to university resources by government and industry; with the caveat being that in order to receive funding, institutions must develop comprehensive electronic communications strategies and provide appropriate training;
3. Promotion and use of networked technologies in selected programs to be administered by the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology and other relevant Ministers, in order to facilitate better technology diffusion, especially for small and medium sized enterprises, foster the export of Australian electronic network resources and services, and to stimulate Australian industrial R&D towards new and innovative electronic network services;
4. Creation of a Commonwealth Government Information Services Task Force which would a) develop a pilot program for delivering government information to the public using World Wide Web and other Internet-type services, b) develop an Internet-based directory of government information publicly available over electronic networks, c) investigate options for extending community access to networked information through libraries and telecentres, d) encourage and facilitate links with non-government organisations;
5. The recommendation that a national study investigating the potential of networked K-12 education be conducted.

The report recognized that widespread success and adaptation of networked technologies depends on not just "building infrastructure and technology", but rather "build[ing] a platform that will underpin our future society - promote social interaction, enrich education, improve health services, enhance the delivery of government services, and improve competitiveness for businesses and the economy."

Therefore, the approach recommended by the BSEG is to develop a "new, user-oriented strategy for communications. The emphasis will be on communication among people, with their access to networks and privacy protected. It is also a strategy based on an evolutionary approach to infrastructure, changing as services develop and the community needs them."

In lieu of committing to provide widespread and equitable access to broadband services, given the premature attempt to define these requirements and the high cost involved, the BSEG recommended the development and implementation of a strategy to link the evolution of services to the community's communication needs. One of the crucial questions to answer is how and when to ensure widespread access across a large geographic area with many remote and rural regions.Simply expanding the current standard telephone service definition from a requirement for telephone access to a requirement for access to a broadband link, necessitating the replacement of copper-wire links with coaxial-optical fibre could mean expenditure of up to $40 billion.

Therefore, the BSEG devised the concept of 'universal reach' as a way to describe "how to make broadband services accessible to as much of the community as possible as quickly as possible". They delineated three aspects of access to be examined in formulating their universal reach strategy:

1. Identification of how the community's communications needs might evolve and be met;
2. Creating a a regulatory environment that allows service providers the opportunity to meet users' requirements;
3. Establishment of a framework for dealing with questions such as privacy, copyright and censorship.

Funding: How to fund broadband developments when other communities are not currently receiving these services is an issue to resolved. Community groups, and particularly those in rural and remote areas, have questioned the BSEG as to why those who will not receive broadband services in the near future will be cross-subsidising the roll-out of broadband services in other locations. Should the current universal service funding arrangements (a form of cross- subsidisation) be expanded to finance the roll out of broadband services to areas of low population density? The BSEG recommended that this issue be examined as part of the 1997 Telecommunications Review being conducted by the Department of Communications and the Arts.

In October 1994 the BSEG and Telstra sponsored a series of public seminars on future communications technologies. Access and affordability to the new services was continually raised, and "participants expressed concern about the possibility of social inequalities being increased through the limited availability of new communications technologies. Groups who felt they had limited access to existing technologies, such as low-income consumers and rural and remote users, were particularly concerned that they would be left behind."

The BSEG proposed that a National Strategy for New Communications Networks be implemented, which would be based on three key elements: education and community access, industry development, and the role of government. Specific recommendations include:

• Establishing links to schools and other community centres: by the year 2001, broadband links should be provided to all schools, libraries, medical and community centres, as well as the Cooperative Multimedia Centres. In the interim, the BSEG recommends that schools and libraries be connected to available narrowband digital links for access to information services such as the Internet, and that connections be funded on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the State/Territory and Commonwealth Governments.
• Establishing a National Strategy for Broadband Networking in Education: The BSEG recommends the development of a National Strategy for Broadband Networking in Education in anticipation of the extension of high capacity links to educational institutions by 2001.
• Training: The BSEG recommends that funding for extension of new infrastructure and technology to educational institutions should include significant training and support components; funding should be made available to community organisations for targeted training programs; and that government funded support for training facilities and personnel should be made available at libraries and telecentres.
• Community applications fund: The BSEG recommends that a program to support innovative applications of communications services by the community sector be made by the Department of Communications and the Arts, with initial funding of $10 million over three years.
• Industry development plans: The BSEG recommends that the Government require all cable network operators involved in broadband service provision to implement industry development plans for the telecommunications supply industry.
• Extension of networks: The BSEG recommends that telecommunications carriers and broadband network operators be required to inform government annually of their strategies for upgrading their networks, including the expected level of digitization of existing network services, and the expected extent of broadband network coverage, reviewed by the year 2000.
• Services and applications: The BSEG recommends the acceleration of the development, demonstration and use of networked services and applications.
• Local Content: The BSEG recommends that providers of broadband entertainment and information services be obliged to commit at least 10 per cent of their expenditure on content to new Australian content, reviewable by the year 2000.
• Government Use of Networks: The BSEG recommends that the Commonwealth Government establish a fund, to be allocated on a matching-funds basis, to projects for new networked information services put forward by agencies.
• Open Access: The BSEG recommends that the communications regulatory regime promote open and equitable access arrangements for users, service providers and broadband carriers, based on diverse and flexible pricing arrangements, pricing transparency in the provision of carriage and content, and commercially negotiated connection charges.
• Privacy: The BSEG recommends that the privacy of users of advanced networks be protected by developing a self- regulatory scheme for network participants within the framework of the Privacy Act.
• Conditional access systems: The BSEG recommends that existing classification systems be applied to equivalent material commercially available on the new networks, and also recommends that network operators and service providers be obliged to offer facilities, such as personal identification numbers, through which parents can restrict access to particular types of material.

The CIN is run by the Department of Social Security (DSS, and is part of a broader Community Research Project currently being undertaken by DSS to examine possible new services to improve the living standards of people on low incomes).CIN information includes: local, state and federal government services; community organisations and services; community events and local news; and international issues on selected topics.

Three hundred Local Access Points (LAPs) are available in community centres, libraries, local government offices and other community sites, in the State of Tasmania; Elizabeth and Salisbury in Adelaide; North-East Brisbane; the Gympie/Kingaroy area in south-east Queensland; and Canberra.

In December 1995 Prime Minister Keating announced several new infrastructure projects aimed at increasing access to information services. Innovate Australia is a document which outlines a strategy towards increasing access to new infrastructure programs throughout the country. New initiatives include:

Accessing Australia: An $18M fund to give access to a wide range of on-line information services and interactive networks through public libraries, community centres and other public places. These community access points "will increase awareness, encourage early adoption and use of information services by a wide cross section of Australians, and assist disadvantaged groups by reducing some of the barriers which they experience in accessing such services". As well, they "will demonstrate to people the benefits of information services and provide a means by which people can use and become familiar with developing technology", and "will also provide a convenient way for people to access Government information and services".The two components of the program include:

1) providing electronic links to and public access facilities in public libraries. The Commonwealth will also provide $11.4m in 1996-97 as grants to Local Government authorities or State Governments to ensure that every public library is linked to on-line services for public use. As well, The Government will also assist libraries with training in using the technology and in managing the access points.

2) extending the pilot Community Information Network which was established in June 1995, until the end of 1996, at a cost of $6.5M.

An advisory group composed of State and local government representatives will coordinate the various Commonwealth, State and Territory network initiatives, as well as links with the management structures for Education Network Australia (EdNA).

Development of shared access to government information and services, will also be a component, including ensuring that major statements of Government information or policy are available over the Internet, and development of a consistent set of technical standards for electronic distribution of information which comply with privacy, security and integrity requirements.

Australia's Story: Our National Collections On-Line: Development and provision of on-line access to all Australians to material held in their galleries and museums; National Indigenous Communications Network: will provide a national indigenous radio service, an indigenous news service and an extension of the Tanami network;

Other activities include: captioning of ABC and SBS evening news services to ensure greater access by hearing impaired people; action to improve protection of privacy and intellectual property; and the promotion of the development of internationally competitive information industries in Australia.

In the Framework & Strategies for Information Technology in the Commonwealth of Australia - Exposure Draft the stated goal for ensuring that Australia remain conversant and a model role of use of networked technologies is that "The Commonwealth will be a world leader in government administration and in the cost-effective provision of affordable, equitable and accessible Australian government information and services", and that, "Australians will have seamless access - that is, through common interfaces - to a range of government information and services appropriate to the client group, wherever it is cost-effective to do so".

The new regulatory framework includes:

• full and open competition from July 1, 1997;
• the continued separation of regulation of carriage from regulation of content;
• neutrality with respect to carriage technologies;
• the full application of national competition law to telecommunications, with additional powers for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to prevent anti-competitive conduct;
• full interconnection of networks and guaranteed access for carriers, service and content providers;
• universal consumer access to a standard range of telecommunications and payphone services;
• the continuation of targeted Government assistance, including rebates for social security recipients;
• continued use of price caps on Telstra to ensure price reductions in services;
• a greater reliance on the industry to self-regulate, with fail-safe mechanisms in the event that self-regulation does not work;
• increased protection of consumers; and
• the continuation of industry development programs.

New Zealand

In a speech to the 1995 Mobile Computing Summit regarding Government Communications Policy in New Zealand, Minister of Information Technology, Communications, Transport, Broadcasting and Statistics, the Hon. Maurice Williamson reiterated the government's "need to deregulate the telecommunications services industry to make it more responsive to consumers' requirements, encourage its growth, and allow anybody to explore opportunities which might bring benefits to customers. In short, the Government got out of the way of entrepreneurial activity."

Because no restrictions exist on foreign investment in Telecom Corporation of New Zealand, Ltd. other than the maximum foreign shareholding limit of 49.9 percent, many companies (mostly U.S.) have flocked to New Zealand. For instance, Ameritech and Bell Atlantic own just under half of Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Ltd. MCI and Bell Canada are backing a long-distance competitor to Telecom New Zealand. US Sprint, a major provider of long distance telephone call service in the US, has recently signed an interconnect agreement with Telecom. Broadcast Communications Ltd, a New Zealand Company, in conjunction with International Wireless Corporation of California and Vanguard International Telecommunications of Ohio launched Team Talk in late 1994, a competitive trunked land mobile telephone service. BellSouth runs a cell-phone network. (New Zealand has one of the highest rates of cell-phone penetration).

The key features of the New Zealand telecommunications regulatory regime are:

• reliance on a market based approach to developing future information superhighway requirements (i.e., competition should encourage the development of new broadband services);
• direct negotiation of interconnect terms and conditions between the parties;
• no telecommunications industry-specific regulator;
• negotiation and general competition law (the Commerce Act) are relied upon to efficiently resolve competition disputes.

In New Zealand, the Internet is not subsidized by the government, but instead brought to New Zealand by University research institutes. Conceivably small ISPs and other commercial interests will start to instigate Internet connectivity. Public policy had not explicitly dealt with the universal service or universal access issues.

For more information on New Zealand see the New Zealand Information Infrastructure Policy.

Singapore