Chapter 8 translations
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Developments in technology affect the cost, acceptability and feasibility of services and have a direct impact on universal access and service (UAS). Because technological developments influence regulators’ expectations and users’ technology preferences, minimum requirements for and expectations of UAS increase over time.
UAS policy needs to be resilient and forward looking as it takes emerging technologies into account, but it should aim to be technologically neutral. Regulators should be informed observers regarding technologies, but they need to allow UAS providers to choose which technologies are cost effective.
As an overall principle, it is important to note that technologies are neither isolated from market, nor solely the determining factor in successful service provision. Country by country, whether a particular technology is an appropriate solution for UAS and rural areas, and for low income people, depends strongly on these market factors:
- Competition (the market position of the providers, their service packages and pricing strategy);
- Demand and affordability;
- Customer density; and
- End user terminal distribution and availability.
Such factors should not be overridden by governmental preferences; technological choice should be left to service providers and the regulator should focus on providing equal opportunity for participants.
This Chapter provides an overview of relevant trends and issues for UAS. Module 7 - New Technologies and impacts on Regulation provides a more comprehensive coverage of trends, with references where applicable. Module 7 describes in detail the four main streams of technology development - Internet and Internet Protocol (IP), Mobile Communications, Next Generation Network (NGN) infrastructures, and Convergence.
These trends create a new ICT network paradigm for the Information Society and imply that there is a need for UAS policy interventions to encourage network and service build-out in directions that are regionally balanced and ubiquitous. However, just as the mobile revolution has driven progress in achieving UAS for telephony, it would be advisable for regulators to give high regard to fundamental market developments taking place in the broadband field also.
In summary, policy makers and regulators need to recognize the following:
- The requirement for UAS has moved from pure telephony to include broadband [1] (thereby allowing access to different types of content and ICT applications);
- The trends in Internet and IP development, NGNs and Convergence are giving impetus to the emergence of a “broadband revolution.” Commercial and market forces in this development promise to be just as dynamic as those which drove the mobile revolution;
- UAS policy needs to harness the principles of competitive market regulation and technological openness/neutrality to encourage the most economic and sustainable deployment from among the plethora of technologies available for ICT.
End notes
- As a basic definition, broadband refers to an array of digital, packet-switched network technologies that allow the transport of digital bits at high speeds. These technologies are both wireless and wire-line, and they include both upgrades to existing networks (for example, xDSL or 2.5G networks) and entirely new infrastructure (such as all-fibre networks, WLANs and 3G systems). In 2008, broadband is defined as always on Internet access with a speed equal or greater than 256 kbps by the OECD.