Welcome back Communications Law Centre
It was good to learn that the Communications Law Centre has received a new lease of life, thanks the excellent support it has received from the University of NSW.
For the last 22 years the Centre has played a key role in empirical research and policy development in the Australian media and communications sectors.
With the advent of the National Broadband Network it is essential that more of this type of work is carried out. At the moment a great deal of attention is being given to engineering and competition policy issues, but it is essential to bear in mind why we are building this infrastructure in the first place. It is a nation-building project and the taxpayers’ dollars should be spent, not to prop up competition, but to make sure that we get an infrastructure that delivers to the nation the social and economic benefits that are envisaged by the government.
A trans-sector approach towards this infrastructure is essential and we need to take care that whatever is designed facilitates these sectors in the efficient, effective and affordable online delivery of their services – e-health, e-learning and e-government services as well as smart grid and public safety applications.
The bigger picture here is the construction of smarter communities, cities, and indeed nations. For that to happen, this trans-sector use of the infrastructure needs to be prioritised in both the design and the architecture of the network.
At present there is considerable doubt that the current design will be able to provide the QoS required by these sectors. So far there has been no serious discussion on this issue – on the contrary, there has been a campaign to discredit the people that are asking the hard questions. This campaign has also made others wary of participating in it.
A more concerted effort is needed to ensure guaranteed cross-sector use of the new national infrastructure and the CLC could play a key role in assisting the government in developing the trans-sectoral policies for the NBN
The next step is to monetise these trans-sector benefits. While, intuitively, most people involved agree that the NBN will be able to deliver significant social and economic benefits (and this has recently been confirmed by research undertaken by the OECD) there is still a need for more and better empirical research.
An urgent need exists for research in relation to behavioural economics. Similar research has been undertaken in the USA and it would be good to learn from each other on how to not only measure these benefits but also how to develop policies that will guide these sectors on using the NBN in the most effective and efficient way.
Also, this month, the United Nations is taking further initiatives in relation to broadband-related trans-sector policies under the banner: ‘Building on Broadband’. Australia should not only tap into the work that will shortly be undertaken by the UN – it should take on a leadership role. It was in Australia that these initiatives were born and put into practice and it would be great if organisations like CLC were to become involved in these international projects, both to learn and to lead.
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Tagged in: Australia, Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific
