Comms Alliance teams with IBES to research comms regulation

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 22 March 2011 10:47

IT Policy - Regulation

Communications Alliance and the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) at the University of Melbourne have embarked on a joint research project on communications regulation in the digital economy.

The project will "explore the principles, objectives and mechanisms needed to optimise converged digital communications in Australia."

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said the project was aimed squarely at elevating the debate on Digital Economy strategy and at providing substantive inputs to the Government's 2011 Convergence Review.

IBES research leader, associate professor Scott McQuire, said: "This research will provide a comprehensive and up to date assessment of the telecommunications sector through interviews with a range of key stakeholders, as well as undertake international benchmarking by surveying developments in comparable countries.

"The findings'¦will be a valuable tool in shaping future policy directions and will help to establish the basis for new regulatory instruments for a converged digital economy."

The two organisations say their research will be framed by two key goals: to better situate telecommunications-specific issues in relation to transformations occurring across the media and communication sectors, and to rethink telecommunications regulation in the context of the emerging digital economy, in order to achieve policy consistency across various Government agencies.