Key points and recommendations
- The boundaries between IT, telecom, broadcasting and other media are constantly moving. New services combining elements from two or more of these subsectors are being created. Many of these services for instance IPTV and VoIP, are using the Internet as a common platform, but the Internet by itself is also a convergent service combining elements from the IT and telecom sectors. Convergence of services complicates regulatory practices where different services are regulated differently. For instance, it becomes still more difficult to distinguish between different types of Internet-based voice services, such as VoIP and voice mail and telephone services. Video services provided via the Internet and 3G phones are also difficult to distinguish from broadcasting services.
- The boundaries between different types of networks are also moving. Network infrastructures originally designated for the provision of particular services such as telephony or TV broadcast are increasingly used to provide a broad range of communication services. The most prominent example is the provision of triple play, providing Internet access, telephony and TV broadcast via the same connection. This makes it more difficult to maintain different regulation of different types of network infrastructures. For instance, obligations will with regard to open access or a universal service tax imposed on particular types of networks will create unfair competition between different types of network technologies.
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