Transforming telecommunications : democratising potential, distributive challenges and political change

Abstract

Tilgang til teletjenester blir stadig viktigere for folks muligheter til å få informasjon og delta i samfunnsliv og politikk. Samtidig er telesektoren blitt liberalisert, og tjenesteproduksjonen satt ut i konkurranse. En aktuell utfordring blir da å sikre at hele befolkninga får tilgang til viktige teletjenester i et liberalisert marked. Dette er utgangspunktet for denne avhandlinga som tar for seg den telepolitiske utviklinga i Norge, Danmark og Irland. <br><br>

Avhandlinga presenterer en normativ analyse av hvilken rolle hensyn til fordeling har spilt i telepolitisk debatt i de tre landa, hvordan telesektoren har blitt regulert for å fremme universell tilgang til tjenestene, og hvordan disse reguleringene har blitt implementert i markedet. <br><br>

Analysen viser at Norge, Danmark og Irland nærmer seg hverandre politisk ved at de har liberalisert telemarkedene og innført reguleringer for å sikre alle tilgang til grunnleggende tjenester, men ikke til mer avanserte tjenester. Det er imidlertid fortsatt vesentlige forskjeller mellom landene, bl.a. i forhold til hvilke tjenester som reguleres og hvor politiserte reguleringsregimene er. <br><br>

I debatten i disse landa vektlegges det at alle skal ha tilgang til teletjenester som har betydning for folks muligheter til samfunnsdeltakelse. Allikevel legger alle tre land opp til at det ikke skal være et statlig ansvar å fordele avanserte teletjenester. Dette kan bety at liberaliseringa er en politisk dreining vekk fra likhetsidealer og mot større aksept av forskjeller.

This thesis considers telecommunications policy in Norway, Denmark and Ireland. The point of departure for the study is that access to telecommunication services is an increasingly important resource for citizens in order to achieve information and participate in society. At the same time, the production and provision telecommunications infrastructure and services have been liberalised and is no longer provided by the state. The political challenge arising from this situation is therefore to ensure universal access to important telecommunications services in a liberalised market.<br><br>

This thesis presents a normative analysis of which role the concern for distributive justice has played in the political debate on telecommunications, how telecommunications have been regulated in order to ensure universal access to basic services, and how these regulations have been implemented in the markets.<br><br>

The analysis shows that there has been a political convergence on telecommunications policy between Norway, Denmark and Ireland. They all have liberalised their telecommunications markets and imposed new regulations to ensure universal access to some basic services, although not advanced services. However, there are still considerable differences between the states concerning which services they regulate and how politicised the regulatory regimes are. Indications are that this is related to lasting differences between the political cultures of the states.<br><br>

Normatively, the thesis argues that all citizens should have access to services significant for democratic participation. Similar arguments were also important in the political debates. However, all three states concluded that services more advanced than ISDN should be distributed by the market. This may imply that liberalisation represents a political change away from egalitarian values and towards larger acceptance of differences.