Journal articles on the topic 'PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)'

Based on the remote maintenance of motor exciation, this paper discusses the function design and solution method of communication software which is used in remote monitoring system of motor exciation. It mainly introduces the process of data transmission founded on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and key problems of the implementation of communication MSComm control in VC++.

Telecommunication technology is developing along with information technology and several innovations in several audio and data transmission and reception techniques. Innovation and communication technology are hoped to be able to create efficiencies in regards to time, equipment, and cost. The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) telephone technology has experienced integration towards communication using Internet Protocol (IP) networks, better known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP Technology transmits conversations digitally through IP-based networks, such as internet networks, Wide Area Networks (WAN), and Local Area Networks (LAN). However, the VoIP cannot fully replace PSTN due to several weaknesses, such as delay, jitter, packet loss, as well as security and echo. Telephones calls using VoIP technology are executed using terminals in the form of computer devices or existing analogue telephones. The benefit of VoIP is that it can be set in all ethernet and IP addresses. Prefixes can be applied for inter-server placements as inter-building telephone networks without the addition of inefficient new cables on single board computers with Elastix installed. Prefix and non-prefix analysis on servers from single board computers can be tested using QoS for bandwidth, jitter, and packet loss codec. The installation of 6 clients, or 3 simultaneous calls resulted in a packet loss value in the prefix Speex codex of 2.34%. The bandwidth in the prefix PCMU codec has an average value of 82.3Kbps, and a non-prefix value of 79.3Kbps, in accordance to the codec standards in the VoIP. The lowest jitter was found in the non-prefix PCMU codec with an average of 51.05ms, with the highest jitter for the prefix Speex codec being 314.65ms.

The Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) are the basis for building monitoring tools that enable the supervision of local and remote systems. A variety of communications and data transmission system has been adopted DAS to exchange information. The special-purpose DAS has a very important practical value. This paper presents the circuit and system design for a new micro type of remote data acquisition system. It consists of an integrated circuit, a phone dialer, modulation devices, central processing unit, buttons, input devices and display devices. The system and circuit design has been described in detail. It can be used to transmit data through the public switched telephone network. It is suitable for constructing a mini scale communication network at low cost for data acquisition through the PSTN.

In developed economies, electronic communication infrastructures are crucial for daily public, private, and business interactions. Cellular systems are extensively used for business communications, private interaction, and in some cases, public information services, via such uses as mass SMS messaging. The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is at the core of all communications platforms. It was used primarily for voice communication purposes, but with current technological advances, this platform has been transformed from a voice to voice interface to a web enabled multimedia platform that provides commercial, business, and e-commerce services to the public. In response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist acts in New York City, the UK government introduced a policy of separating and transferring all emergency communication traffic from the PSTN to a digital public safety network based on the TETRA architecture. This paper extends the utilisation of the TETRA deployment by discussing a secure MANET hybrid solution for use in extreme situations as a short/mid-term EMS organisational communication platform for emergency and rescue operations.

The advancement of communication technology that is combined with computer and the Internet brings Internet Telephony or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Through VoIP technology, the cost of telecommunications in particular for international direct dialing (IDD) can be reduced. This research analyzes the growth rate of VoIP users, the correlation of the consumer behavior towards using VoIP, and cost comparisons of using telecommunication services between VoIP and other operators. This research is using descriptive analysis method to describe researched object through sampling data collection for hypothesis testing. This research will lead to the conclusion that the use of VoIP for international area will be more advantageous than the use of other operators of GSM (Global System for Mobile), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), or the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

Nowadays, one of the trends of information and communication networks development is the provision within the shortest time of a larger number of telecommunication services to network users. Currently, connection of subscribers to xDSL communication channels provided by public switched telephone networks (PSTN) is widespread. Providers of classic telephony make active use of these networks due to the low cost of the connection of a subscriber. An obvious disadvantage of this connection type is the limited data transfer rate. Some Internet providers rapidly develop ETTH (Ethernet To The Home) networks. The advantage of ETTH networks is the targeting of the delivery of communication services to subscribers. One of the disadvantages is the operation of a network at the Ethernet level with all typical for this protocol features. The practice of optical networking has existed for many years; however, the basic approach to optical networking is based on the use of active equipment from the access node to users. PON-based (Passive Optical Network) FTTH architecture (Fiber To The Home) is as a rule, compatible with the Ethernet Protocol. The article shows the advantages of the deployment of PON-based FTTH networks, in particular, saving of fiber-optic lines in the area from the optical splitters to the Central telephone exchange or access point by using relevant ports. The article provides the description of access networks architecture applying Ethernet FTTH and PON technologies, and also discusses the prospects for further development of the above mentioned networks.

Background: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has emerged as one of the most significant technology in the field of communication and evolved as a substitute to the conventional communication method as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Along with the advantages such as scalability and security, VoIP has some threats such as voice quality and interference that must be dealt with. The voice quality in VoIP is degraded when transmitted over a computer network due to delay, jitter and packet loss etc. Packet loss is one of major reasons for the signal quality degradation. Objective: In this research article, Quadrature Mirror Filter Bank (QMF) has been implemented in wireless VoIP system to enhance the quality of the signals transmitted. Results: The performance has been evaluated under varying network conditions of packet loss. Conclusion: Significant improvement has been observed in the quality of VoIP signal.

Over the recent years enormous changes in the telecommunication services, techniques, regulations and markets have taken place. However, even with many new exciting services the telephony service is still popular. This paper provides empirical traffic data and observations of telephony traffic patterns in mobile and IP telephony. They are presented and compared with old telephony patterns from Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN). The question is whether the characterization of telephony traffic should be reconsidered because new technology and markets might have changed the service and usage. How is the telephony usage patterns influenced by technology changes from fixed to mobile phones, changes in quality from fixed-line phone to mobile and IP telephone, changes in tariffs from usage based to flat-rate subscriptions, and appearance of alternative message based communication means? This paper presents a comparison between recent mobile and IP telephony measurements and telephony measurement obtained nearly four decades ago. The traffic patterns are compared and significant changes in the daily and weekly traffic profiles are observed. In particular, the profile of international calls has significantly changed and does not resemblance any of the standard traffic profiles from ITU E.523. The busy hour call holding times are fitted a log-Normal distribution for domestic and Hyper Exponential for international calls. Furthermore, the average call holding times show significant variations over the day in flat-rate subscriptions. Finally, the results indicate that the Short Message Service (SMS) seems to serve as a supplement to phone calls, in particular in the evenings, which might change call holding time distribution and traffic intensities.

The increase in demand for mobile telecommunication systems, and the limited bandwidth allocated to these systems, have led to systems with smaller cell dimensions, which in turn led to the increase of control messages. In order to prevent controller bottle necks, it is desirable to distribute the network control functions throughout the network. To satisfy this requirement, a mobile network structure characterized by its hierarchical and decentralized network control is presented in this paper. The area served by the mobile system is divided into regions, and the regions are further divided into cells. Each cell is served by a base station, each base station is connected to a regional network through a base station interface unit (BIU). Each region has its own regional network. Connected to each regional network are the cellular controller, the home database, the visitor database, the trunk interface unit (TIU) and the gateway interface unit (GIU). The TIU connects the regional network to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The GIU connects the regional network to other regional networks through the gateway network. This architecture distributes the network control functions among a large number of processing elements, thus preventing controller bottle necks — a problem faced by centralized controlled systems. The information and network control messages are transferred in the form of packets across this network. Processes inherent to the operation of this network structure are illustrated and discussed. These processes include the location update process, the setting up of a call, the handoff process (both the intra-region handoff process and the inter-region handoff process are considered), and the process of terminating a call.

Perkembangan teknologi yang sangat pesat, membuat teknologi telekomunikasi semakin berkembang. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Global System for Mobiles (GSM) dan internet adalah teknologi terkini dalam memenuhi kebutuhan seseorang dalam berkomunikasi. Di sebagian besar implementasinya, penyedia layanan PSTN dan GSM memberikan sebuah tarif dalam setiap panggilan yang terjadi. Perancangan dan pembangunan sistem ini bertujuan untuk menciptakan sebuah sistem telekomunikasi berbasis VoIP, yang dapat menghubungkan jaringan lokal, GSM dan internet secara terpusat, demi memenuhi kebutuhan komunikasi seseorang dengan mobilitas tinggi disertai fleksibilitas pengaturan alur panggilan, untuk menghemat anggaran penggunaan layanan telekomunikasi. Metodologi penelitian tugas akhir ini dibagi menjadi 4 tahapan. Tahapan tersebut diantaranya adalah definisi sistem, spesifikasi kebutuhan, konfigurasi sistem dan pengujian sistem. Definisi sistem dibuat dengan mendefinisikan gambaran dan cara kerja sistem secara umum. Spesifikasi kebutuhan dibuat dengan menyesuaikan kebutuhan perangkat keras dan perangkat lunak yang dibutuhkan oleh sistem. Konfigurasi dilakukan untuk mengimplementasikan pengaturan mengenai dialplan, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) dan kotak suara. Pengujian sistem adalah tahap untuk memeriksa keseluruhan fungsi pada sistem. Sistem ini diuji dengan melakukan panggilan dari setiap klien. Hasil dari pengujian menunjukkan bahwa sistem mampu memenuhi kebutuhan komunikasi seseorang dengan mobilitas tinggi. Fleksibilitas pengaturan panggilan membuat sistem dapat berkomunikasi dengan jaringan GSM dan VoIP Rakyat serta dapat menghemat tarif penggunaan layanan telekomunikasi. Sistem juga dapat mencatat aktivitas panggilan dengan memanfaatkan fitur Call Detail Record (CDR). Penelitian ini dapat dijadikan sebagai alternatif bagi perkantoran maupun instansi, untuk menggunakan layanan telekomunikasi secara terpusat, agar penghematan anggaran dalam penggunaan telekomunikasi menjadi lebih efisien.

Jaringan komputer yang diimplementasikan di dalam suatu perkantoran yang lebih banyak dimanfaatkan untuk layanan data dapat dioptimalkan dengan penambahan layanan voice berbasis IP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) menghemat resource jaringan dibandingkan dengan PSTN (Public Switched telephone Network). Namun demikian implementasi VoIP harus memperhatikan kualitas layanan atau Qualitiy of Service (QoS). Parameter kualitas layanan VoIP antara lain throughput, delay, jitter, dan packet loss. Teknologi VoIP telah dikembangkan dengan menciptakan berbagai macam protocol seperti SIP, H.323, MGCP dan codec seperti G.711, G.723.1, G.726, G.728, G.729 dengantujuan untuk memperbaiki kualitas layanan VoIP. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis kinerja QoS dengan membandingkan variasi codec G.711, G.723.1 dan G.726 pada sebuah rancangan jaringan VoIP berbasis SIP di gedung FEB-UKSW, dengan parameter QoS adalah Throughput, delay, packet loss, jitter. Komunikasi VoIP yang dilakukan terdiri atas komunikasi internal dan komunikasi eksternal. Komunikasi internal mencakup simulasi komunikasi hardphone ke PC. Komunikasi eksternal mencakup simulasi hardphone ke PC eksternal. Dari hasil penelitian, secara umum didapatkan bahwa codec G.711 memiliki kualitas paling baik untuk simulasi komunikasi internal ataupun eksternal dengan menghasilkan rata-rata delay, jitter, packet loss paling rendah.

The communications sector is undergoing significant changes, with the emergence of a number of platforms available to provide a different range of services. Some of these platforms are complementary to each other, while others are competitive, or can provide a valid substitute for some of the services provided. Up till now, the most important communications platform in most of the developing countries has been the public switched telecommunication network (PSTN) which provides access to all households and buildings. This universality in providing access has also meant that the network has generally been designated as one for universal service.

In recent years, the coverage of terrestrial mobile communication network is more and more extensive, and the mobile phones have occupied the vast majority of voice communications in almost all countries. However, satellite voice communication system is still playing an irreplaceable role on the vast sea and the land area which are not covered by the land mobile communication network. The motion characteristics of the SIGSO satellites and its new demands and characteristics to the system are analyzed, and a novel very low rate satellite telephone system is put forward. The speech coding algorithms are studied, and a suitable speech coding algorithm and coding rate of 600bps is selected for the SIGSO satellite communication system. The overall design of the satellite voice communication network is given, including link budgets, network structure, system components, system signaling and so on. This satellite telephone system can get access to the PSTN network through ground gateway to achieve interoperability with the public network.

Die Hauptaufgabe von Telekommunikationsnetzen liegt in der Übertragung von Signalen bzw. Daten zwischen physisch voneinander getrennten Endsystemen, wie beispielsweise Festnetz- oder Mobiltelefonen, PCs, Fernsehoder Radiogeräten (Obermann & Horneffer 2013, S. 1). Dabei war für lange Zeit das Telefonnetz (Public Switched Telecommunication Network – PSTN) das bedeutendste Telekommunikationsnetz, das Zugang zu allen Haushalten und Gebäuden über Landesgrenzen hinweg gewährte (OECD 2008b, S. 4). Seit geraumer Zeit ist der Telekommunikationssektor allerdings von disruptiven Veränderungsprozessen geprägt, die mit der Entwicklung von Next Generation Networks (NGNs) einhergeht (Schwemmle 2009, S. 5). Während zuvor die Bereitstellung eines spezifischen Dienstes nur über Aufbau und Bereitstellung explizit dafür ausgelegter Netzwerke (sog. dedizierte Netze) möglich war (Obermann & Horneffer 2013, S. 1), führten technologische Entwicklungen, aber auch veränderte Marktgegebenheiten dazu, dass Netzbetreiber und Kommunikationsdienstleister ihre Netzwerke zu neuen, auf dem Internet Protocol (IP) basierenden Netzwerkarchitekturen migrieren (Marcus & Elixmann 2008, S. 19).

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) recommends that IP-telephony networks be divided into four classes according to the quality of service (quality of network services) QoS, the main indicator of which is packet delay (Y.1541). ITU-T Recommendation G.114 for public switched telephone networks provides delays close to ETSI gradations that correspond to different types of communication. The quality of the service from the user's point of view can be expressed by a set of indicators. These metrics are described in terms that are understandable to both the user and the service, and are independent of the network structure. Quality of service indicators are focused primarily on the effect perceived by the user, must be guaranteed to the user by the service and be objectively measured at the point of access to the service (ITU-T Recommendation I.350). ITU-T Recommendation E.862 provides possible approaches to accounting for the economic losses of the operator (in planning, design, operation and telecommunication network) and the user associated with technical failures. Operators of networks, working in market conditions, are interested in assessing possible losses due to failures and in comparing them with the costs of increasing the reliability of their funds.

A private branch exchange (PBX) is implemented by an Asterisk software. In conjunction with appropriate telecommunication hardware interfaces and network applications, Asterisk is employed to establish and manage the telephone calls between telecommunication endpoints, like customary telephone sets, destinations on the general public switched telephone network (PSTN), and devices or services on voice over internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. A Vocoder may be a system of coders and encoders that is employed to scaleback the bandwidth over the restricted use of bandwidth necessities and restricted capability channels in real time needs. This paper presents Performance of Various VOIP Vocoders using wireshark with Asterisk PBX.

Voice over IP (VoIP) has become the standard technology for telephony and has replaced the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This research focuses on the security aspect of VoIP systems. Unsecured VoIP systems are vulnerable to malicious attacks. However, the overhead of the security techniques hampers the performance of VoIP systems. This research analyzes how a VoIP system performs with different security techniques. The performance of the VoIP system is analyzed on different types of data networks such as IPv4, IPv6, and IPv4/IPv6 mixed networks, and in scenarios such as with and without network traffic. Additionally, the research includes a cost-benefit analysis of the security techniques, to determine their cost effectiveness. Based on the performance analysis and cost-benefit analysis, this research proposes three security techniques that can be applied to VoIP systems deployed on IPv4, IPv6, and IPv4/IPv6 networks.

Nowadays, There are various technology used in day-to-day life; such as Human Computer Interaction, Communication Engineering, various types of architectures of computer system for easy convenience of living life style of human being .However, there are various network utilized for the transmission of signal containing various data like audio, video, data in text format etc.Network utilized for different Purposed based on its application. There are various Network are being utilized such as LAN(local area network),MAN(metro area network),WAN(wide area network),Backbone Network, Public Switch Telephone Network(PSTN), Integrated service Digital Network (ISDN),Broadband Integrated Service Digital Network(BISDN).Depending upon the bandwidth and usage of application by human being ,we are going to utilized this network technologies for transmission of signal to send message in various format. The Purpose of this various network is to use for transmission and receiving message. With the help of this network technology we are going to discuss technology like “Radio Frequency Identification” for tracking, detecting the objects and its working and application..

Cloud based Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), is a new type of communication that uses Internet protocol to transfer the data packets which contains the audio data. For the past 20 years there has been an intensive research going on this field since this makes the calling system much cheaper than those taking place over PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). VoIP has been mainly taking place through cloud computing and this feature has its own issues but even has its own pros. This feature over cloud is facing many challenges in the terms of quality of services and security. This paper also describes the research or the development taking place in field of secured discussions. The network components and architecture have been discussed; the components described are call processors, gateways and many more. Different attacks possible on the VoIP have been discussed which include spoofing and SPIT. There are different VoIP solutions and they are based on either peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). In this paper, we have analysed about some of the essential security issues on cloud based VoIP for preventing the adaptive anomaly attacks and some other security issues of cloud computing by applying the algorithmic simulation in hadoop cluster

In the era of industrialization increasingly competitive currently, every business actors that wants to winthe competition in the industry will give full attention to the quality. Six Sigma provides a perfect solution aboutbreakthroughs or steps that should be done to produce a dramatic improvement to the level of failures = 0 (zerodefect). PT. X is a company engaged in the business of telecommunications services with one of its products is thePSTN (Public Switch Telephone Network). The author will examine the improvement of service quality controlproblems using the five phases of Six Sigma, namely: 1) Define, The completion of repair that have been madeduring the year 2010 as many as 26 421 with the failure of 23, 2) Measure, cause of the failure that occurred atthe IKR 39.13%, DP 34.78%, 21.73% MDF and RK 4.34%, 3) Analyze, the overall repair process disruption incontrol limits, indicated by the absence of data that passes through the UCL and LCL.The process capability hasbeen which achieved is 5:01 sigma, and the dominant cause of any failure lies in the material factors 43.54%, 4)improve, target to be achieved is 3.4 failures per million opportunities DPMO (Defect per million opportunities)with the proposed improvements on Human Factors, Methods, Machinery/equipment, material and theenvironment, 5) Control, not discussed in this paper because the analysis is only a proposal to the Company.

Resumen Voz sobre IP, VoIP, es uno de los servicios con mayor desarrollo bajo plataformas inalámbricas; actualmente se ha iniciado su implementación como alternativa frente a la PSTN (red pública conmutada). El interés por VoIP radica en su relación costo-beneficio, ya que las organizaciones pueden utilizar la misma plataforma de su red de datos para transmitir voz. Por lo anterior, es importante que la organización tenga claro que, para garantizar el buen funcionamiento del servicio de VoIP, es decir para ofrecer QoS, se debe realizar la medición de parámetros que afectan la calidad del servicio como lo son: el retardo, la variación del retardo, el ancho de banda y la pérdida de paquetes. Este artículo analiza y valida los parámetros de QoS necesarios para garantizar el buen funcionamiento del servicio de VoIP sobre la red inalámbrica del campus de la Universidad Icesi. Se realizan pruebas en diferentes escenarios para mostrar que no solo factores como el retardo, y su variación, influyen en la calidad de servicio, sino que también la intensidad de la señal que recibe el cliente desde los puntos de acceso.Palabras Clave: Voz sobre IP, Calidad de servicio, Pérdida de paquetes, Retardo, Variación del Retardo, Intensidad de Señal. Abstract VoIP is one of the services that has been developing over under this type of wireless platforms and today has begun to implement as an alternative to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The interest in VoIP is its cost-benefit ratio, and that organizations can use the same platform for their data network to transmit voice. Therefore it is important that the organization is clear that to ensure the smooth operation of the VoIP service, ie provide QoS, you must perform the measurement of parameters that affect the quality of service such as: delay, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss. In this paper we analyze and validate the QoS parameters needed to ensure the smooth operation of VoIP over wireless network on the Icesi University campus. We performed a series of tests in different scenarios to show that not only factors such as delay and jitter influencing the quality of service, but also the client signal strength received from of the AP (Access Point).Keywords: Voice over IP, Quality of service, Packet Loss, Delay, Delay variation, signal intensity.

Connecting I’ve moved house on the weekend, closer to the centre of an Australian capital city. I had recently signed up for broadband, with a major Australian Internet company (my first contact, cf. Turner). Now I am the proud owner of a larger modem than I have ever owned: a white cable modem. I gaze out into our new street: two thick black cables cosseted in silver wire. I am relieved. My new home is located in one of those streets, double-cabled by Telstra and Optus in the data-rush of the mid-1990s. Otherwise, I’d be moth-balling the cable modem, and the thrill of my data percolating down coaxial cable. And it would be off to the computer supermarket to buy an ASDL modem, then to pick a provider, to squeeze some twenty-first century connectivity out of old copper (the phone network our grandparents and great-grandparents built). If I still lived in the country, or the outskirts of the city, or anywhere else more than four kilometres from the phone exchange, and somewhere that cable pay TV will never reach, it would be a dish for me — satellite. Our digital lives are premised upon infrastructure, the networks through which we shape what we do, fashion the meanings of our customs and practices, and exchange signs with others. Infrastructure is not simply the material or the technical (Lamberton), but it is the dense, fibrous knotting together of social visions, cultural resources, individual desires, and connections. No more can one easily discern between ‘society’ and ‘technology’, ‘carriage’ and ‘content’, ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’, or ‘infrastructure’ and ‘applications’ (or ‘services’ or ‘content’). To understand telecommunications in action, or the vectors of fibre, we need to consider the long and heterogeneous list of links among different human and non-human actors — the long networks, to take Bruno Latour’s evocative concept, that confect our broadband networks (Latour). The co-ordinates of our infrastructure still build on a century-long history of telecommunications networks, on the nineteenth-century centrality of telegraphy preceding this, and on the histories of the public and private so inscribed. Yet we are in the midst of a long, slow dismantling of the posts-telegraph-telephone (PTT) model of the monopoly carrier for each nation that dominated the twentieth century, with its deep colonial foundations. Instead our New World Information and Communication Order is not the decolonising UNESCO vision of the late 1970s and early 1980s (MacBride, Maitland). Rather it is the neoliberal, free trade, market access model, its symbol the 1984 US judicial decision to require the break-up of AT&T and the UK legislation in the same year that underpinned the Thatcherite twin move to privatize British Telecom and introduce telecommunications competition. Between 1984 and 1999, 110 telecommunications companies were privatized, and the ‘acquisition of privatized PTOs [public telecommunications operators] by European and American operators does follow colonial lines’ (Winseck 396; see also Mody, Bauer & Straubhaar). The competitive market has now been uneasily installed as the paradigm for convergent communications networks, not least with the World Trade Organisation’s 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services and Annex on Telecommunications. As the citizen is recast as consumer and customer (Goggin, ‘Citizens and Beyond’), we rethink our cultural and political axioms as well as the axes that orient our understandings in this area. Information might travel close to the speed of light, and we might fantasise about optical fibre to the home (or pillow), but our terrain, our band where the struggle lies today, is narrower than we wish. Begging for broadband, it seems, is a long way from warchalking for WiFi. Policy Circuits The dreary everyday business of getting connected plugs the individual netizen into a tangled mess of policy circuits, as much as tricky network negotiations. Broadband in mid-2003 in Australia is a curious chimera, welded together from a patchwork of technologies, old and newer communications industries, emerging economies and patterns of use. Broadband conjures up grander visions, however, of communication and cultural cornucopia. Broadband is high-speed, high-bandwidth, ‘always-on’, networked communications. People can send and receive video, engage in multimedia exchanges of all sorts, make the most of online education, realise the vision of home-based work and trading, have access to telemedicine, and entertainment. Broadband really entered the lexicon with the mass takeup of the Internet in the early to mid-1990s, and with the debates about something called the ‘information superhighway’. The rise of the Internet, the deregulation of telecommunications, and the involuted convergence of communications and media technologies saw broadband positioned at the centre of policy debates nearly a decade ago. In 1993-1994, Australia had its Broadband Services Expert Group (BSEG), established by the then Labor government. The BSEG was charged with inquiring into ‘issues relating to the delivery of broadband services to homes, schools and businesses’. Stung by criticisms of elite composition (a narrow membership, with only one woman among its twelve members, and no consumer or citizen group representation), the BSEG was prompted into wider public discussion and consultation (Goggin & Newell). The then Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE), since transmogrified into the Communications Research Unit of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), conducted its large-scale Communications Futures Project (BTCE and Luck). The BSEG Final report posed the question starkly: As a society we have choices to make. If we ignore the opportunities we run the risk of being left behind as other countries introduce new services and make themselves more competitive: we will become consumers of other countries’ content, culture and technologies rather than our own. Or we could adopt new technologies at any cost…This report puts forward a different approach, one based on developing a new, user-oriented strategy for communications. The emphasis will be on communication among people... (BSEG v) The BSEG proposed a ‘National Strategy for New Communications Networks’ based on three aspects: education and community access, industry development, and the role of government (BSEG x). Ironically, while the nation, or at least its policy elites, pondered the weighty question of broadband, Australia’s two largest telcos were doing it. The commercial decision of Telstra/Foxtel and Optus Vision, and their various television partners, was to nail their colours (black) to the mast, or rather telegraph pole, and to lay cable in the major capital cities. In fact, they duplicated the infrastructure in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, then deciding it would not be profitable to cable up even regional centres, let alone small country towns or settlements. As Terry Flew and Christina Spurgeon observe: This wasteful duplication contrasted with many other parts of the country that would never have access to this infrastructure, or to the social and economic benefits that it was perceived to deliver. (Flew & Spurgeon 72) The implications of this decision for Australia’s telecommunications and television were profound, but there was little, if any, public input into this. Then Minister Michael Lee was very proud of his anti-siphoning list of programs, such as national sporting events, that would remain on free-to-air television rather than screen on pay, but was unwilling, or unable, to develop policy on broadband and pay TV cable infrastructure (on the ironies of Australia’s television history, see Given’s masterly account). During this period also, it may be remembered, Australia’s Internet was being passed into private hands, with the tendering out of AARNET (see Spurgeon for discussion). No such national strategy on broadband really emerged in the intervening years, nor has the market provided integrated, accessible broadband services. In 1997, landmark telecommunications legislation was enacted that provided a comprehensive framework for competition in telecommunications, as well as consolidating and extending consumer protection, universal service, customer service standards, and other reforms (CLC). Carrier and reseller competition had commenced in 1991, and the 1997 legislation gave it further impetus. Effective competition is now well established in long distance telephone markets, and in mobiles. Rivalrous competition exists in the market for local-call services, though viable alternatives to Telstra’s dominance are still few (Fels). Broadband too is an area where there is symbolic rivalry rather than effective competition. This is most visible in advertised ADSL offerings in large cities, yet most of the infrastructure for these services is comprised by Telstra’s copper, fixed-line network. Facilities-based duopoly competition exists principally where Telstra/Foxtel and Optus cable networks have been laid, though there are quite a number of ventures underway by regional telcos, power companies, and, most substantial perhaps, the ACT government’s TransACT broadband network. Policymakers and industry have been greatly concerned about what they see as slow takeup of broadband, compared to other countries, and by barriers to broadband competition and access to ‘bottleneck’ facilities (such as Telstra or Optus’s networks) by potential competitors. The government has alternated between trying to talk up broadband benefits and rates of take up and recognising the real difficulties Australia faces as a large country with a relative small and dispersed population. In March 2003, Minister Alston directed the ACCC to implement new monitoring and reporting arrangements on competition in the broadband industry. A key site for discussion of these matters has been the competition policy institution, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and its various inquiries, reports, and considerations (consult ACCC’s telecommunications homepage at http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm). Another key site has been the Productivity Commission (http://www.pc.gov.au), while a third is the National Office on the Information Economy (NOIE - http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm). Others have questioned whether even the most perfectly competitive market in broadband will actually provide access to citizens and consumers. A great deal of work on this issue has been undertaken by DCITA, NOIE, the regulators, and industry bodies, not to mention consumer and public interest groups. Since 1997, there have been a number of governmental inquiries undertaken or in progress concerning the takeup of broadband and networked new media (for example, a House of Representatives Wireless Broadband Inquiry), as well as important inquiries into the still most strategically important of Australia’s companies in this area, Telstra. Much of this effort on an ersatz broadband policy has been piecemeal and fragmented. There are fundamental difficulties with the large size of the Australian continent and its harsh terrain, the small size of the Australian market, the number of providers, and the dominant position effectively still held by Telstra, as well as Singtel Optus (Optus’s previous overseas investors included Cable & Wireless and Bell South), and the larger telecommunications and Internet companies (such as Ozemail). Many consumers living in metropolitan Australia still face real difficulties in realising the slogan ‘bandwidth for all’, but the situation in parts of rural Australia is far worse. Satellite ‘broadband’ solutions are available, through Telstra Countrywide or other providers, but these offer limited two-way interactivity. Data can be received at reasonable speeds (though at far lower data rates than how ‘broadband’ used to be defined), but can only be sent at far slower rates (Goggin, Rural Communities Online). The cultural implications of these digital constraints may well be considerable. Computer gamers, for instance, are frustrated by slow return paths. In this light, the final report of the January 2003 Broadband Advisory Group (BAG) is very timely. The BAG report opens with a broadband rhapsody: Broadband communications technologies can deliver substantial economic and social benefits to Australia…As well as producing productivity gains in traditional and new industries, advanced connectivity can enrich community life, particularly in rural and regional areas. It provides the basis for integration of remote communities into national economic, cultural and social life. (BAG 1, 7) Its prescriptions include: Australia will be a world leader in the availability and effective use of broadband...and to capture the economic and social benefits of broadband connectivity...Broadband should be available to all Australians at fair and reasonable prices…Market arrangements should be pro-competitive and encourage investment...The Government should adopt a National Broadband Strategy (BAG 1) And, like its predecessor nine years earlier, the BAG report does make reference to a national broadband strategy aiming to maximise “choice in work and recreation activities available to all Australians independent of location, background, age or interests” (17). However, the idea of a national broadband strategy is not something the BAG really comes to grips with. The final report is keen on encouraging broadband adoption, but not explicit on how barriers to broadband can be addressed. Perhaps this is not surprising given that the membership of the BAG, dominated by representatives of large corporations and senior bureaucrats was even less representative than its BSEG predecessor. Some months after the BAG report, the Federal government did declare a broadband strategy. It did so, intriguingly enough, under the rubric of its response to the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry report (Estens), the second inquiry responsible for reassuring citizens nervous about the full-privatisation of Telstra (the first inquiry being Besley). The government’s grand $142.8 million National Broadband Strategy focusses on the ‘broadband needs of regional Australians, in partnership with all levels of government’ (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’). Among other things, the government claims that the Strategy will result in “improved outcomes in terms of services and prices for regional broadband access; [and] the development of national broadband infrastructure assets.” (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’) At the same time, the government announced an overall response to the Estens Inquiry, with specific safeguards for Telstra’s role in regional communications — a preliminary to the full Telstra sale (Alston, ‘Future Proofing’). Less publicised was the government’s further initiative in indigenous telecommunications, complementing its Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (DCITA). Indigenous people, it can be argued, were never really contemplated as citizens with the ken of the universal service policy taken to underpin the twentieth-century government monopoly PTT project. In Australia during the deregulatory and re-regulatory 1990s, there was a great reluctance on the part of Labor and Coalition Federal governments, Telstra and other industry participants, even to research issues of access to and use of telecommunications by indigenous communicators. Telstra, and to a lesser extent Optus (who had purchased AUSSAT as part of their licence arrangements), shrouded the issue of indigenous communications in mystery that policymakers were very reluctant to uncover, let alone systematically address. Then regulator, the Australian Telecommunications Authority (AUSTEL), had raised grave concerns about indigenous telecommunications access in its 1991 Rural Communications inquiry. However, there was no government consideration of, nor research upon, these issues until Alston commissioned a study in 2001 — the basis for the TAPRIC strategy (DCITA). The elision of indigenous telecommunications from mainstream industry and government policy is all the more puzzling, if one considers the extraordinarily varied and significant experiments by indigenous Australians in telecommunications and Internet (not least in the early work of the Tanami community, made famous in media and cultural studies by the writings of anthropologist Eric Michaels). While the government’s mid-2003 moves on a ‘National Broadband Strategy’ attend to some details of the broadband predicament, they fall well short of an integrated framework that grasps the shortcomings of the neoliberal communications model. The funding offered is a token amount. The view from the seat of government is a glance from the rear-view mirror: taking a snapshot of rural communications in the years 2000-2002 and projecting this tableau into a safety-net ‘future proofing’ for the inevitable turning away of a fully-privately-owned Telstra from its previously universal, ‘carrier of last resort’ responsibilities. In this aetiolated, residualist policy gaze, citizens remain constructed as consumers in a very narrow sense in this incremental, quietist version of state securing of market arrangements. What is missing is any more expansive notion of citizens, their varied needs, expectations, uses, and cultural imaginings of ‘always on’ broadband networks. Hybrid Networks “Most people on earth will eventually have access to networks that are all switched, interactive, and broadband”, wrote Frances Cairncross in 1998. ‘Eventually’ is a very appropriate word to describe the parlous state of broadband technology implementation. Broadband is in a slow state of evolution and invention. The story of broadband so far underscores the predicament for Australian access to bandwidth, when we lack any comprehensive, integrated, effective, and fair policy in communications and information technology. We have only begun to experiment with broadband technologies and understand their evolving uses, cultural forms, and the sense in which they rework us as subjects. Our communications networks are not superhighways, to invoke an enduring artefact from an older technology. Nor any longer are they a single ‘public’ switched telecommunications network, like those presided over by the post-telegraph-telephone monopolies of old. Like roads themselves, or the nascent postal system of the sixteenth century, broadband is a patchwork quilt. The ‘fibre’ of our communications networks is hybrid. To be sure, powerful corporations dominate, like the Tassis or Taxis who served as postmasters to the Habsburg emperors (Briggs & Burke 25). Activating broadband today provides a perspective on the path dependency of technology history, and how we can open up new threads of a communications fabric. Our options for transforming our multitudinous networked lives emerge as much from everyday tactics and strategies as they do from grander schemes and unifying policies. We may care to reflect on the waning potential for nation-building technology, in the wake of globalisation. We no longer gather our imagined community around a Community Telephone Plan as it was called in 1960 (Barr, Moyal, and PMG). Yet we do require national and international strategies to get and stay connected (Barr), ideas and funding that concretely address the wider dimensions of access and use. We do need to debate the respective roles of Telstra, the state, community initiatives, and industry competition in fair telecommunications futures. Networks have global reach and require global and national integration. Here vision, co-ordination, and resources are urgently required for our commonweal and moral fibre. To feel the width of the band we desire, we need to plug into and activate the policy circuits. Thanks to Grayson Cooke, Patrick Lichty, Ned Rossiter, John Pace, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Works Cited Alston, Richard. ‘ “Future Proofing” Regional Communications.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.php> —. ‘A National Broadband Strategy.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.php>. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Broadband Services Report March 2003. Canberra: ACCC, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm>. —. Emerging Market Structures in the Communications Sector. Canberra: ACCC, 2003. 15 July 2003 <http://www.accc.gov.au/pubs/publications/utilities/telecommu... ...nications/Emerg_mar_struc.doc>. Barr, Trevor. new media.com: The Changing Face of Australia’s Media and Telecommunications. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000. Besley, Tim (Telecommunications Service Inquiry). Connecting Australia: Telecommunications Service Inquiry. Canberra: Department of Information, Communications and the Arts, 2000. 17 July 2003 <http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/final_report.php>. Briggs, Asa, and Burke, Peter. A Social History of the Internet: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge: Polity, 2002. Broadband Advisory Group. Australia’s Broadband Connectivity: The Broadband Advisory Group’s Report to Government. Melbourne: National Office on the Information Economy, 2003. 15 July 2003 <http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/BAG/report/index.htm>. Broadband Services Expert Group. Networking Australia’s Future: Final Report. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS), 1994. Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE). Communications Futures Final Project. Canberra: AGPS, 1994. Cairncross, Frances. The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives. London: Orion Business Books, 1997. Communications Law Centre (CLC). Australian Telecommunications Regulation: The Communications Law Centre Guide. 2nd edition. Sydney: Communications Law Centre, University of NSW, 2001. Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA). Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities: Report on the Strategic Study for Improving Telecommunications in Remote Indigenous Communities. Canberra: DCITA, 2002. Estens, D. Connecting Regional Australia: The Report of the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry. Canberra: DCITA, 2002. <http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/rti-report.php>, accessed 17 July 2003. Fels, Alan. ‘Competition in Telecommunications’, speech to Australian Telecommunications Users Group 19th Annual Conference. 6 March, 2003, Sydney. <http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2003/Fels_ATUG_6March03.doc>, accessed 15 July 2003. Flew, Terry, and Spurgeon, Christina. ‘Television After Broadcasting’. In The Australian TV Book. Ed. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham. Allen & Unwin, Sydney. 69-85. 2000. Given, Jock. Turning Off the Television. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2003. Goggin, Gerard. ‘Citizens and Beyond: Universal service in the Twilight of the Nation-State.’ In All Connected?: Universal Service in Telecommunications, ed. Bruce Langtry. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 1998. 49-77 —. Rural Communities Online: Networking to link Consumers to Providers. Melbourne: Telstra Consumer Consultative Council, 2003. Goggin, Gerard, and Newell, Christopher. Digital Disability: The Social Construction of Disability in New Media. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (HoR). Connecting Australia!: Wireless Broadband. Report of Inquiry into Wireless Broadband Technologies. Canberra: Parliament House, 2002. <http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/cita/Wbt/report.htm>, accessed 17 July 2003. Lamberton, Don. ‘A Telecommunications Infrastructure is Not an Information Infrastructure’. Prometheus: Journal of Issues in Technological Change, Innovation, Information Economics, Communication and Science Policy 14 (1996): 31-38. Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. Luck, David. ‘Revisiting the Future: Assessing the 1994 BTCE communications futures project.’ Media International Australia 96 (2000): 109-119. MacBride, Sean (Chair of International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems). Many Voices, One World: Towards a New More Just and More Efficient World Information and Communication Order. Paris: Kegan Page, London. UNESCO, 1980. Maitland Commission (Independent Commission on Worldwide Telecommunications Development). The Missing Link. Geneva: International Telecommunications Union, 1985. Michaels, Eric. Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition, Media, and Technological Horizons. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994. Mody, Bella, Bauer, Johannes M., and Straubhaar, Joseph D., eds. Telecommunications Politics: Ownership and Control of the Information Highway in Developing Countries. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1995. Moyal, Ann. Clear Across Australia: A History of Telecommunications. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1984. Post-Master General’s Department (PMG). Community Telephone Plan for Australia. Melbourne: PMG, 1960. Productivity Commission (PC). Telecommunications Competition Regulation: Inquiry Report. Report No. 16. Melbourne: Productivity Commission, 2001. <http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/telecommunications/finalreport/>, accessed 17 July 2003. Spurgeon, Christina. ‘National Culture, Communications and the Information Economy.’ Media International Australia 87 (1998): 23-34. Turner, Graeme. ‘First Contact: coming to terms with the cable guy.’ UTS Review 3 (1997): 109-21. Winseck, Dwayne. ‘Wired Cities and Transnational Communications: New Forms of Governance for Telecommunications and the New Media’. In The Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Consequences of ICTs, ed. Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia Livingstone. London: Sage, 2002. 393-409. World Trade Organisation. General Agreement on Trade in Services: Annex on Telecommunications. Geneva: World Trade Organisation, 1994. 17 July 2003 <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/12-tel_e.htm>. —. Fourth protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Geneva: World Trade Organisation. 17 July 2003 <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm>. Links http://www.accc.gov.au/pubs/publications/utilities/telecommunications/Emerg_mar_struc.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2003/Fels_ATUG_6March03.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/cita/Wbt/report.htm http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.html http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.html http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/BAG/report/index.htm http://www.pc.gov.au http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/telecommunications/finalreport/ http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/final_report.html http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/rti-report.html http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/12-tel_e.htm http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Goggin, Gerard. "Broadband" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>. APA Style Goggin, G. (2003, Aug 26). Broadband. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>

The Australian Government has been actively evaluating how best to merge the functions of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) for around two years now. Broadly, the reason for this is an attempt to keep pace with the communications media transformations we reduce to the term “convergence.” Mounting pressure for restructuring is emerging as a site of turf contestation: the possibility of a regulatory “one-stop shop” for governments (and some industry players) is an end game of considerable force. But, from a public interest perspective, the case for a converged regulator needs to make sense to audiences using various media, as well as in terms of arguments about global, industrial, and technological change. This national debate about the institutional reshaping of media regulation is occurring within a wider global context of transformations in social, technological, and politico-economic frameworks of open capital and cultural markets, including the increasing prominence of international economic organisations, corporations, and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Although the recently concluded FTA with the US explicitly carves out a right for Australian Governments to make regulatory policy in relation to existing and new media, considerable uncertainty remains as to future regulatory arrangements. A key concern is how a right to intervene in cultural markets will be sustained in the face of cultural, politico-economic, and technological pressures that are reconfiguring creative industries on an international scale. While the right to intervene was retained for the audiovisual sector in the FTA, by contrast, it appears that comparable unilateral rights to intervene will not operate for telecommunications, e-commerce or intellectual property (DFAT). Blurring Boundaries A lack of certainty for audiences is a by-product of industry change, and further blurs regulatory boundaries: new digital media content and overlapping delivering technologies are already a reality for Australia’s media regulators. These hypothetical media usage scenarios indicate how confusion over the appropriate regulatory agency may arise: 1. playing electronic games that use racist language; 2. being subjected to deceptive or misleading pop-up advertising online 3. receiving messaged imagery on your mobile phone that offends, disturbs, or annoys; 4. watching a program like World Idol with SMS voting that subsequently raises charging or billing issues; or 5. watching a new “reality” TV program where products are being promoted with no explicit acknowledgement of the underlying commercial arrangements either during or at the end of the program. These are all instances where, theoretically, regulatory mechanisms are in place that allow individuals to complain and to seek some kind of redress as consumers and citizens. In the last scenario, in commercial television under the sector code, no clear-cut rules exist as to the precise form of the disclosure—as there is (from 2000) in commercial radio. It’s one of a number of issues the peak TV industry lobby Commercial TV Australia (CTVA) is considering in their review of the industry’s code of practice. CTVA have proposed an amendment to the code that will simply formalise the already existing practice . That is, commercial arrangements that assist in the making of a program should be acknowledged either during programs, or in their credits. In my view, this amendment doesn’t go far enough in post “cash for comment” mediascapes (Dwyer). Audiences have a right to expect that broadcasters, production companies and program celebrities are open and transparent with the Australian community about these kinds of arrangements. They need to be far more clearly signposted, and people better informed about their role. In the US, the “Commercial Alert” <http://www.commercialalert.org/> organisation has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to achieve similar in-program “visual acknowledgements.” The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (“Cash-for-Comment”) found widespread systemic regulatory failure and introduced three new standards. On that basis, how could a “standstill” response by CTVA, constitute best practice for such a pervasive and influential medium as contemporary commercial television? The World Idol example may lead to confusion for some audiences, who are unsure whether the issues involved relate to broadcasting or telecommunications. In fact, it could be dealt with as a complaint to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) under an ACA registered, but Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) developed, code of practice. These kind of cross-platform issues may become more vexed in future years from an audience’s perspective, especially if reality formats using on-screen premium rate service numbers invite audiences to participate, by sending MMS (multimedia messaging services) images or short video grabs over wireless networks. The political and cultural implications of this kind of audience interaction, in terms of access, participation, and more generally the symbolic power of media, may perhaps even indicate a longer-term shift in relations with consumers and citizens. In the Internet example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Internet advertising jurisdiction would apply—not the ABA’s “co-regulatory” Internet content regime as some may have thought. Although the ACCC deals with complaints relating to Internet advertising, there won’t be much traction for them in a more complex issue that also includes, say, racist or religious bigotry. The DVD example would probably fall between the remits of the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) new “convergent” Guidelines for the Classification of Film and Computer Games and race discrimination legislation administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The OFLC’s National Classification Scheme is really geared to provide consumer advice on media products that contain sexual and violent imagery or coarse language, rather than issues of racist language. And it’s unlikely that a single person would have the locus standito even apply for a reclassification. It may fall within the jurisdiction of the HREOC depending on whether it was played in public or not. Even then it would probably be considered exempt on free speech grounds as an “artistic work.” Unsolicited, potentially illegal, content transmitted via mobile wireless devices, in particular 3G phones, provide another example of content that falls between the media regulation cracks. It illustrates a potential content policy “turf grab” too. Image-enabled mobile phones create a variety of novel issues for content producers, network operators, regulators, parents and viewers. There is no one government media authority or agency with a remit to deal with this issue. Although it has elements relating to the regulatory activities of the ACA, the ABA, the OFLC, the TIO, and TISSC, the combination of illegal or potentially prohibited content and its carriage over wireless networks positions it outside their current frameworks. The ACA may argue it should have responsibility for this kind of content since: it now enforces the recently enacted Commonwealth anti-Spam laws; has registered an industry code of practice for unsolicited content delivered over wireless networks; is seeking to include ‘adult’ content within premium rate service numbers, and, has been actively involved in consumer education for mobile telephony. It has also worked with TISSC and the ABA in relation to telephone sex information services over voice networks. On the other hand, the ABA would probably argue that it has the relevant expertise for regulating wirelessly transmitted image-content, arising from its experience of Internet and free and subscription TV industries, under co-regulatory codes of practice. The OFLC can also stake its claim for policy and compliance expertise, since the recently implemented Guidelines for Classification of Film and Computer Games were specifically developed to address issues of industry convergence. These Guidelines now underpin the regulation of content across the film, TV, video, subscription TV, computer games and Internet sectors. Reshaping Institutions Debates around the “merged regulator” concept have occurred on and off for at least a decade, with vested interests in agencies and the executive jockeying to stake claims over new turf. On several occasions the debate has been given renewed impetus in the context of ruling conservative parties’ mooted changes to the ownership and control regime. It’s tended to highlight demarcations of remit, informed as they are by historical and legal developments, and the gradual accretion of regulatory cultures. Now the key pressure points for regulatory change include the mere existence of already converged single regulatory structures in those countries with whom we tend to triangulate our policy comparisons—the US, the UK and Canada—increasingly in a context of debates concerning international trade agreements; and, overlaying this, new media formats and devices are complicating existing institutional arrangements and legal frameworks. The Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts’s (DCITA) review brief was initially framed as “options for reform in spectrum management,” but was then widened to include “new institutional arrangements” for a converged regulator, to deal with visual content in the latest generation of mobile telephony, and other image-enabled wireless devices (DCITA). No other regulatory agencies appear, at this point, to be actively on the Government’s radar screen (although they previously have been). Were the review to look more inclusively, the ACCC, the OFLC and the specialist telecommunications bodies, the TIO and the TISSC may also be drawn in. Current regulatory arrangements see the ACA delegate responsibility for broadcasting services bands of the radio frequency spectrum to the ABA. In fact, spectrum management is the turf least contested by the regulatory players themselves, although the “convergent regulator” issue provokes considerable angst among powerful incumbent media players. The consensus that exists at a regulatory level can be linked to the scientific convention that holds the radio frequency spectrum is a continuum of electromagnetic bands. In this view, it becomes artificial to sever broadcasting, as “broadcasting services bands” from the other remaining highly diverse communications uses, as occurred from 1992 when the Broadcasting Services Act was introduced. The prospect of new forms of spectrum charging is highly alarming for commercial broadcasters. In a joint submission to the DCITA review, the peak TV and radio industry lobby groups have indicated they will fight tooth and nail to resist new regulatory arrangements that would see a move away from the existing licence fee arrangements. These are paid as a sliding scale percentage of gross earnings that, it has been argued by Julian Thomas and Marion McCutcheon, “do not reflect the amount of spectrum used by a broadcaster, do not reflect the opportunity cost of using the spectrum, and do not provide an incentive for broadcasters to pursue more efficient ways of delivering their services” (6). An economic rationalist logic underpins pressure to modify the spectrum management (and charging) regime, and undoubtedly contributes to the commercial broadcasting industry’s general paranoia about reform. Total revenues collected by the ABA and the ACA between 1997 and 2002 were, respectively, $1423 million and $3644.7 million. Of these sums, using auction mechanisms, the ABA collected $391 million, while the ACA collected some $3 billion. The sale of spectrum that will be returned to the Commonwealth by television broadcasters when analog spectrum is eventually switched off, around the end of the decade, is a salivating prospect for Treasury officials. The large sums that have been successfully raised by the ACA boosts their position in planning discussions for the convergent media regulatory agency. The way in which media outlets and regulators respond to publics is an enduring question for a democratic polity, irrespective of how the product itself has been mediated and accessed. Media regulation and civic responsibility, including frameworks for negotiating consumer and citizen rights, are fundamental democratic rights (Keane; Tambini). The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (‘cash for comment’) has also reminded us that regulatory frameworks are important at the level of corporate conduct, as well as how they negotiate relations with specific media audiences (Johnson; Turner; Gordon-Smith). Building publicly meaningful regulatory frameworks will be demanding: relationships with audiences are often complex as people are constructed as both consumers and citizens, through marketised media regulation, institutions and more recently, through hybridising program formats (Murdock and Golding; Lumby and Probyn). In TV, we’ve seen the growth of infotainment formats blending entertainment and informational aspects of media consumption. At a deeper level, changes in the regulatory landscape are symptomatic of broader tectonic shifts in the discourses of governance in advanced information economies from the late 1980s onwards, where deregulatory agendas created an increasing reliance on free market, business-oriented solutions to regulation. “Co-regulation” and “self-regulation’ became the preferred mechanisms to more direct state control. Yet, curiously contradicting these market transformations, we continue to witness recurring instances of direct intervention on the basis of censorship rationales (Dwyer and Stockbridge). That digital media content is “converging” between different technologies and modes of delivery is the norm in “new media” regulatory rhetoric. Others critique “visions of techno-glory,” arguing instead for a view that sees fundamental continuities in media technologies (Winston). But the socio-cultural impacts of new media developments surround us: the introduction of multichannel digital and interactive TV (in free-to-air and subscription variants); broadband access in the office and home; wirelessly delivered content and mobility, and, as Jock Given notes, around the corner, there’s the possibility of “an Amazon.Com of movies-on-demand, with the local video and DVD store replaced by online access to a distant server” (90). Taking a longer view of media history, these changes can be seen to be embedded in the global (and local) “innovation frontier” of converging digital media content industries and its transforming modes of delivery and access technologies (QUT/CIRAC/Cutler & Co). The activities of regulatory agencies will continue to be a source of policy rivalry and turf contestation until such time as a convergent regulator is established to the satisfaction of key players. However, there are risks that the benefits of institutional reshaping will not be readily available for either audiences or industry. In the past, the idea that media power and responsibility ought to coexist has been recognised in both the regulation of the media by the state, and the field of communications media analysis (Curran and Seaton; Couldry). 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Web Links http://www.aba.gov.au http://www.aca.gov.au http://www.accc.gov.au http://www.acif.org.au http://www.adma.com.au http://www.ctva.com.au http://www.crtc.gc.ca http://www.dcita.com.au http://www.dfat.gov.au http://www.fcc.gov http://www.ippr.org.uk http://www.ofcom.org.uk http://www.oflc.gov.au Links http://www.commercialalert.org/ Citation reference for this article MLA Style Dwyer, Tim. "Transformations" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>. APA Style Dwyer, T. (2004, Mar17). Transformations. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>