The goal of this dissertation is to test the agenda-setting theories of John Kingdon and Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones in terms of applicability. Universal service policy and the 1996 Telecommunications Act serve as the test case. Case study methodology guides the dissertation and employs a variety of methods including the quantitative and qualitative techniques used by John Kingdon and by Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones. These methods involve content analysis and the coding of media articles, an analysis of congressional hearings and government reports, and a review of scholarly literature on topics related to the policy-making in general, and telecommunications policy development, in particular. Universal service was selected for legislative action because it was bound up with telecommunications legislation, which required revision. Although some policy-makers preferred a market solution (that is the elimination of subsidized telecommunication services), universal service remained part of the telecommunications policy revision. Reasons include a new issue definition accompanied by a compelling image (information superhighway), the support of rural senators, and presidential leadership. With regard to fundamental differences between the Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones' theories Kingdon's premise regarding the impact of cyclical events and systematic indicators has more applicability than Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibria model of policy change. In addition, unlike Kingdon's research results, which indicate the media have a minor role in agenda-setting, Baumgartner and Jones' media attention indicators of policy change demonstrated a similar pattern to the universal service media indicators. The influence of interest groups is another point of difference. The universal case as with Baumgartner and Jones' research results that interest groups were major actors in setting the policy agenda. The contribution of this dissertation is to suggest elements of a new integrated model for the study of agenda-setting that incorporates aspects of the work of Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones. / Ph. D.

Serviços de telecomunicações são importantes não apenas pela sua característica de setor de infra-estrutura mas também pelo seus potenciais efeitos de spill over. A universalização dos serviços de telecomunicações tem sido uma parte importante da intervenção regulatória. As justificativas podem ser econômicas: externalidades de rede, ou não econômicas: cidadania e coesão social. Das várias possibilidades alternativas de políticas, apresenta-se a implementação dos preços de Ramsey, através de markup, como um meio de minimizar as perdas de eficiência econômica na consecução ao deste objetivo, a partir de diferentes cenários de estruturas de mercado e valores de parâmetros. / Telecommunications services are relevant, not only due to its infra-structure service characteristic, but also for their spill over potential effects. Telecommunication suniversal service has been a relevant piece of the regulatory process. Economic reasons might be network externalities; whilst non-economic, citizenship and social cohesion. Among the alternative policy possibilities, it is suggested the implementa-tion of Ramsey pricing, through markup, as a mean to minimize the loss of economic efficiency in reaching this purpose, from different market structures scenarios and parameters values.

Serviços de telecomunicações são importantes não apenas pela sua característica de setor de infra-estrutura mas também pelo seus potenciais efeitos de spill over. A universalização dos serviços de telecomunicações tem sido uma parte importante da intervenção regulatória. As justificativas podem ser econômicas: externalidades de rede, ou não econômicas: cidadania e coesão social. Das várias possibilidades alternativas de políticas, apresenta-se a implementação dos preços de Ramsey, através de markup, como um meio de minimizar as perdas de eficiência econômica na consecução ao deste objetivo, a partir de diferentes cenários de estruturas de mercado e valores de parâmetros. / Telecommunications services are relevant, not only due to its infra-structure service characteristic, but also for their spill over potential effects. Telecommunication suniversal service has been a relevant piece of the regulatory process. Economic reasons might be network externalities; whilst non-economic, citizenship and social cohesion. Among the alternative policy possibilities, it is suggested the implementa-tion of Ramsey pricing, through markup, as a mean to minimize the loss of economic efficiency in reaching this purpose, from different market structures scenarios and parameters values.

This thesis analyses narratives associated with the development of public policy in telecommunications from the advent of telegraphy to Australia in 1854 to the end of 2000, with particular emphasis on concepts of universal service. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different narratives are used to frame policy within particular material contexts. The study demonstrates that narratives in telecommunication development reflect national public policy agendas. In addition the thesis analyses how policy narratives are used to underwrite and legitimise assumptions, values and statements that influence the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. Furthermore, the thesis examines the interaction between policy narratives and the barriers and opportunities created by dynamic material environments such as economic, legislative and technological arenas. The study analyses five narratives that influence telecommunication policy and the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. National development, technocratic, rights, competition and charity narratives are used to frame different approaches to telecommunication policy, with particular reference to universal service. The study demonstrates how national development and competition narratives compete to dominate policy. Furthermore, diverse technocratic narratives provide scientific reinforcement to underwrite and legitimise the dominant narrative as well as discredit alternative perspectives. In addition, social rights and charity narratives respectively provide moral support to underwrite and legitimise national development and competition policy narratives. A key focus of this study is a narrative analysis of more than a thousand submissions to an independent inquiry in 2000 into telecommunication service levels with particular reference to universal service. The Telecommunications Service Inquiry was a forum that provided examples of the narratives analysed in this study from a cross-section of the Australian community. Submissions came from diverse social actors and institutions that included governments and state bodies, the telecommunication industry, unions, the farming industry, other business groups, community groups and individuals. The research demonstrates that changes in material environments and social expectations of universal service produce tensions within dominant narratives that require greater support from secondary narratives to provide scientific and moral legitimacy. Furthermore the research indicates that, in part, universal service policy functions to stabilise and legitimise the dominant policy narrative. However, the diverse social expectations associated with universal service produce continuing tensions within the dominant narrative that keep the policy in a state of flux. Consequently, government and industry policy makers find telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with expectations of universal service.

This thesis analyses the development of telecommunications universal service in relation to people with disabilities and national policy making in Australia from 1975 to the end of 1997. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different political, scientific, social symbolic and material contexts have influenced policy. It is argued that social symbolic and material contexts mutually constitute telecommunications policy. Social symbolic influences, such as charity and 'rights' discourses of disability, have framed telecommunications policy toward people with disabilities. Material contexts, including changing technological, economic and legislative environments, have created favourable conditions for either charity or 'rights' models of disability, and have dominated related policy arenas at various times. The study demonstrates that policy arenas influenced by certain discourses, may also lead to changes within the material environments. The influence of community interest groups is also analysed to investigate their effect on telecommunications policy. Associated with interest group influence on telecommunications policy is a joint consultative process initiated by Telstra and consumer groups in 1988. The value of the consultative process to people with disabilities is evaluated. A key focus of this study is the consideration given by policy makers to the interests of people with a disability in the continuing debate on access and equity issues in relation to telecommunications services for all Australians. A turning-point in telecommunications policy for people with disabilities occurred in 1995, when various people with a disability made a successful complaint against Telstra to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The outcome forced a major change of policy in telecommunications service delivery and benefited many who have disabilities. The HREOC inquiry is a useful case study which indicates the significance of the mutually constitutive effect on policy stemming from the dynamic interaction of social symbolic environments and material conditions. The research revealed that policy in this area may be described as a pluralist, non-linear process. Government and Telstra policy makers have found telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with universal service obligations.

Cette thèse aborde de façon systémique l’analyse de la situation des TICs en Afrique Centrale, elle identifie les problématiques liées à l’accès universel et étudie les politiques d’harmonisation des TICs. Cette analyse conduit alors à proposer une cartographie cible intégrée permettant de réduire la fracture numérique. Non seulement les différentes technologies optiques et radio large bande sont mises à contribution mais décrites en vue de relater les notions de base permettant d’appréhender les avantages et inconvénients de chaque technologie. Ceci a permis par la suite de proposer une démarche méthodologique de modélisation de l’indicateur d’accès au service universel couplée à une stratégie d’optimisation révélant, d’une part le gap technologique à combler et d’autre part, prédisant le niveau d’accès technologique à atteindre en fonction des politiques d’investissement du Fonds de Service Universel. Aussi, outre la proposition de cette démarche de modélisation cette thèse apporte une autre contribution en développant un modèle d’architecture réseau basé sur les technologies radio et en proposant une méthodologie consistant à intégrer les différents paramètres impliqués dans le choix des technologies à déployer en vue de l’accès au service universel. De plus, elle se projette dans l’évolution future de la technologie en offrant une ouverture sur les technologies hybrides. / This thesis deals systematically with the analysis of the situation of ICTs in Central Africa, it identifies the problems related to universal access and studies ICTs harmonization policies. This analysis then enables the proposal of an integrated target mapping to reduce the digital divide. Not only the different optical and radio broadband technologies are used but described to relate the basic concepts allowing to apprehend the advantages and disadvantages of each technology. This allowed us to propose a methodological approach to modeling the universal access and service indicator coupled with an optimization strategy revealing, on the one hand, the technological gap to be filled and on the other hand, predicting the access level based on technologies to achieve in accordance with the investment policies of the Universal Service Fund. Besides the proposal of this modeling approach, other contributions of this thesis is developing a network model architecture based on radio technologies and proposing a methodology consisting of integrating the various parameters involved in the choice of technologies to be deployed for access and universal service. In addition, it is projected into the future evolution of solutions that leads to hybrid technologies.

近年來，資訊社會的典型現象紛紛浮現，資訊量爆炸對於人類在經濟、政治與文化等生活各層面上的重大影響性，皆促使人類對於網路頻寬和傳輸速度的渴求程度越來越強烈。於是，窄頻網路已無法再滿足龐大且多元的資訊傳輸，取而代之的是寬頻網路的應用。在許多國家陸續推動寬頻網路建置與接取政策的同時，也重新關注普及服務的定位以及其所能發揮的功能，開始思考是否可運用普及服務機制以達到寬頻網路普及接取的目標。OECD早在2003年就曾探討將寬頻網路接取制定為普及服務義務的先決條件。歐盟自2005年起也開始正式討論是否要修改普及服務指令以將寬頻網路的接取納入普及服務的義務當中。瑞士、芬蘭、英國和美國則已經陸續開始推行寬頻普及服務的相關政策。而我國國家通訊傳播委員會則於2007年開始相繼推動「村村有寬頻」與「部落(鄰)有寬頻」政策，要求普及服務提供者提供偏遠地區居民2 Mbps的寬頻網路接取服務。 然而，將寬頻接取定義為普及服務目前卻受到廣泛探討與爭論，最關鍵的問題就是寬頻網路究竟是不是資訊社會中的基本電信服務。因此，本研究旨在探討普及服務機制在各國推動寬頻網路建置與接取政策上的定位，以及目前寬頻普及服務的相關推動方式。這其中牽涉的範圍廣泛，包含寬頻普及服務接取速率的認定、政策推動單位、業者的範圍界定、經費來源的規劃與調整等，在在都牽動著國家寬頻網路的發展。 本研究歸納我國目前數據普及服務與寬頻政策之間的關係，並依據國外推動寬頻普及接取政策的綜合經驗，對於我國未來推動寬頻普及服務的政策提出以下研究建議：（一）確立我國寬頻普及服務的政策目標，政府應該將寬頻普及接取的目標納入「數位匯流發展方案」，確立在2012年之前可以讓我國所有家庭都能接取基本的寬頻網路服務；（二）整合各部會資源，由NICI負責統籌與協調各部會的力量與資源，最重要的是要求各部會配合以達到資源整合的效果；（三）政府與業者合力推動寬頻普及服務，數據普及服務提供者負責建置寬頻網路，政府則負責電腦設備或是網路教育訓練等的後續補助；（四）整合有線與無線技術達成目標；（五）考量是否挹注公共經費以促進寬頻建置的目標。 / With the advent of information society, people become eager for the greatest degree of bandwidth and highest transmission rate on the Internet. Obviously since narrow bandwidth can neither meet the service demands of the masses, nor transmit all data efficiently, broadband has taken on ever greater importance. When implementing policies in regard to broadband infrastructure and access, many countries start to pay their attention again to the role and function of universal service and the feasibility of promoting universal broadband access by universal service mechanism. Starting in 2003, OECD has debated the preconditions for widening the scope of universal service obligation to include broadband. The EU also began in 2005 the formal public consultation to discuss the possibility of revising Universal Service Directive to include broadband as part of universal service obligation. However, redefinition of the scope of universal service to include broadband now faces many challenges. Among them, whether broadband is an essential telecommunications service necessary for information society has become the most crucial issue. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role of universal service in policies of promoting broadband infrastructure and access, as well as current approaches to accelerate implementation of universal broadband access in different countries. Relevant issues include determination of data transmission rate, involvement of government and service providers, sources of funding, among other issues yet to be resolved. By comparison of the approaches among foreign governments with that of Taiwan, this study suggests the following: (1) The Government should include the goal of universal broadband access into its “Digital Convergence Development Plan,” providing every household in Taiwan access to basic broadband service by 2012. (2) NICI should take charge of coordinating resources among Governmental Departments so as to make effective use of all resources. (3) The Government and telecommunications operators should cooperate closely and strive to deliver broadband universal service. (4) Both wireline and wireless technologies should be fully utilized. (5) The role of public funding for this goal should be highly considered.

Research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Management in the field of ICT Policy and Regulation, University of the Witwatersrand, 2012. / Universal Service Obligations (USOs) have been used, for over a decade, as a regulatory mechanism to bridge the digital divide in South Africa. For USOs to be effective and efficient in bridging the digital divide, it requires close coordination between various impacted and interested stakeholders, such as mobile network operators (MNOs), the ICT regulatory authority (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa), and the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa in order to extend the number of beneficiaries of the USOs. Furthermore, this requires stakeholders to understand the full impact, as well as the costs and benefits (financial and non financial) before imposing the USOs. The evidence from this research confirms that there was no monitoring and evaluation of USOs for MNOs during their implementation. More importantly, the Regulatory Impact Assessment (as a regulatory tool) was never used by ICASA in respect of the USOs initiative. This led to the failure of the initiative in achieving most of its objectives. Such failure can be attributed to lack of understanding by ICASA of the general impact of imposing the USOs upon MNOs, given that no impact assessment was done before such imposition. Recommendations arising from the research include the need for a shared vision on the USOs initiative, the need for clearly identified and defined roles for all stakeholders with an interest in the initiative, the need for a properly analysed and know ICT access gap, the need to balance the use of market and non market mechanisms in respect of USOs, the to ensure a proper funding mechanisms for USOs, and the need to identify effective regulatory governance in respect of USOs.

Cette recherche est une contribution à la réflexion sur la régulation d’un Service Universel des télécommunications intégrant l’accès à l’Internet dans une optique de maximisation du bien-être collectif.Un premier thème concerne l’effet d’une intégration d’un niveau minimal de bande passante dans la définition du Service Universel. Un deuxième thème abordé concerne le choix optimal des technologies permettant d’assurer le quantum de bande passante définie par le Service Universel. Un troisième thème concerne l’impact de la quantité de bande passante sur la consommation, donc l’objectif de bande passante que doit viser le Service Universel pour maximiser le bien-être collectif. Le quatrième thème abordé est celui des gains de surplus par les consommateurs en fonction des prix de l’accès à l’Internet. Ces relations sont établies sur la base de données issues des pays de l’OCDE.A cette fin nous cherchons principalement à répondre aux questions concernant le niveau minimal de bande passante, ainsi que le choix optimal des technologies à partir d’une analyse théorique économique. D’autre part, les questions concernant l’impact de la quantité de bande passante sur la consommation et les gains de surplus par les consommateurs sont visés à travers une analyse économétrique. / This research is a contribution to regulation debate on telecommunications universal service including Internet access to maximizing social welfare. A first subject concerns the effect of an integration of a minimum bandwidth level in the definition of Universal Service. A second subject relates to the optimal technological choice to ensure band width quantum defined by the Universal Service. A third subject is the impact of bandwidth on consumption, therefore the goal of bandwidth that aim the universal service to maximize social welfare. The fourth subject is related to consumers surplus gains based on the price of Internet access.These relationships are established from OECD countries database. In this perspective we aim primarily to address issues concerning bandwidth minimum level and optimal technological choice from an economic theoretical analysis. On the other hand, questions of the impact of bandwidth on consumption and consumers surplus gains are referred through econometric analysis.

Défini comme un ensemble de mesures d'intérêt général compatibles avec un fonctionnement concurrentiel des marchés, le service universel est l'obligation pour un opérateur (ou un groupe d'opérateurs) de fournir un service de base d'une qualité donnée à tous les consommateurs à un tarif abordable. Le plus souvent, une contrainte de prix uniforme est également imposée. Jusqu'ici, la littérature économique s'est surtout articulée autour des questions allocatives. Néanmoins, l’argument de la Pareto-efficacité n’est pas suffisant pour justifier pleinement le service universel. En particulier, si la littérature souligne également l'aspect éthique des OSU, aucune référence n'est faite aux développements récents des théories économiques de la justice.Nous proposons d’articuler cette thèse en trois points. Premièrement, nous proposons l’étude des soubassements éthiques des OSU, tels qu’analysés dans la littérature. Cela consiste à proposer une lecture de l’économie industrielle des OSU en termes d’équité et de justice entre les agents impliqués dans les transactions. La notion d’égalitarisme spécifique à la Tobin est traditionnellement avancée pour justifier les OSU. Les nouvelles approches économiques de l’équité peuvent permettre d’aller plus loin et d’affiner les principes en mettant l’accent sur des arbitrages tels que égalité-responsabilité ou égalité-liberté de choix. Dans un deuxième temps, les préférences éthiques du régulateur sont représentées par une fonction de bien-être social à la Atkinson-Stiglitz. Ceci permet d’élucider l’implémentation de critères éthiques à travers les OSU dans un contexte ou il existe des contraintes de marché (telles qu’une tarification ou une couverture de monopole ou de duopole). Ceci révèle les avantages comparatifs de chaque instrument des OSU en termes d’efficacité et d’équité. Cela permet également de déterminer quels instruments sont complémentaires ou substituts au regard des différentes mesures d’équité et d’efficacité. Enfin, nous décrivons l’évolution du cadre législatif du service universel, avant d’exposant l’impact distributif du changement de structure de marché dans les industries de réseaux. Alors que le service universel est souvent présenté comme le parent pauvre de la concurrence, visant à considérer les question de justice sociale, nous montrons que l’introduction de la concurrence s’inscrit en elle-même dans une logique distributive qui lui est propre. / Defined as a set of public interest measures compatible with a competitive environment, universal service is the obligation for an operator (or a group of operators) to provide a range of basic services of specified quality to all consumers at an affordable rate. In many instances, a uniform price is imposed as an additional requirement to the service provider.Until now, the economic literature has focused essentially on efficiency issues. Nevertheless, this Pareto efficiency argument is not sufficient to justify plainly the universal service. Particularly, the literature stresses on the ethical aspect of USO but without using the recent development in distributive justice and without introducing it in a competitive market benchmark.The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the nature and the justification of USO and its relationship with ethic considerations. Why should USO constraints be imposed? What should a regulator do with social preferences in term of coverage, pricing, and market structure? Indeed, most models on coverage and pricing of USO generally assume their implementation exogenously, but do not give a justification for them.We propose to articulate this thesis around three points. First, we propose the study of the underlying ethical principles of USO, as analyzed in the literature, in order to provide a reading of the industrial organization of USO in terms of equity and justice between the agents involved in transactions. The notion of Tobin specific egalitarianism is traditionaly given to justify the USO. The new economic approaches to equity can allow going further and refining the egalitarian principles with emphasis on trade-off such as equality-responsibility and equality-freedom of choice. Secondly, equity preferences of the regulator are represented by an Atkinson-Stiglitz social welfare function. This allows us to study how to implement equity criteria through USO in a context where there is market constraints (such as monopoly or duopolistic pricing and coverage). This reveal the comparative advantages of each USO instruments in terms of efficiency and equity. This also determines which instruments are substitutes or complements with respect to different equity and efficiency measures.Thirdly, we describe the evolution of the legislative framework of universal service. Then we expose the distributional impacts of market structure changes in network industries. While universal service is often presented as the residual of competition intended to consider the issues of social justice, we show that the introduction of competition is rather fit itself in a distributive logic.