Should broadband services be included in Australia's Telecommunications Universal Service Obligation (USO)? Here's a chance to have your say.
The Universal Service Obligation is placed on Australia's telecommunications providers to ensure standard telephone services are " reasonably accessible" to all Australians. It has provided services where they may not be financially viable; such as payphones in remote areas.
USO's in Australia and other OECD countries cover three main areas:
- availability - the level, price and quality of service needs to be equivalent regardless where a person lives or conducts business
- affordability - accessing the service shouldn't place excessive burden on users, especially the disadvantaged
- accessibility - a person’s disability or age should not exclude them from accessing the service.
As with general telephony before it, internet access is increasingly considered an essential service - but it is not currently covered under the USO.
While demand for standard telephone services and payphones continues to decline, demand for broadband services - including voice over internet protocol VoIP services - keeps growing. At the end of last year, there were 12.9 million internet subscribers across Australia, with almost all of those connections being broadband.
Given how fast telecommunications technology has evolved since the USO was first established in the 1990's, the Government has acknowledged the current USO is becoming less relevant and may not be effective. A Productivity Commission inquiry will investigate what sort of changes should be made or if it should be dumped.
'Our inquiry is looking at whether government intervention is still needed to support universal access to a minimum level of telecommunications services, given market, technological and policy developments over the past decade, not least of which is the widespread use of mobile phones and the rollout of the NBN' said Productivity Commissioner Paul Lindwall.
Is broadband something that should be included in the category of "minimum level of telecommunications services"?
A USO incorporating broadband may be required to bridge the digital divide between city and country areas. Even within metropolitan areas, the effects of digital exclusion can be quite profound. It's also one thing to have the infrastructure in place for broadband (e.g. NBN); people being able to access it is quite another.
Some OECD countries such as Germany have no broadband USO. However, Germany is a much more compact country. It doesn't suffer the effects of tyranny of distance and sparse regional population that Australia does.
Major telecommunications providers will no doubt weigh in on the inquiry, but the Productivity Commission also wants to hear from anyone with an interest in expressing an opinion about the future of the USO; whether it is to make changes, or replace it altogether.
A discussion paper on the issue is now available and includes instructions for submissions. The paper can be downloaded here.
The deadline for submissions is 21 July 2016 and the final Report is required to be provided by the Productivity Commission to the Government by late April next year.
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