Universal Service and Telecommunications Competition

Abstract

In reforming the regulation of Australian telecommunications over the last decade, successive governments have stressed that traditional community service goals would not be sacrificed. One of the most critical has been the Universal Service Obligation, which aims to make basic services accessible throughout Australia. This article explores the tensions inherent in the marriage between an ostensibly egalitarian social policy and a competitive market model, and criticises the increasing politicisation of decisions about universal service. It examines the treatment of universal service in the report of the National Bandwidth Inquiry, which, the author argues, implies an unravelling of the national project represented by the current universal service regime. She questions the extent to which Australians are likely to tolerate such an outcome.