Bronwyn Howell presents "Governments in the Telco busines: prudential investors or bureaucratic intruders? at the Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney on 25 February
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Governments in the Telco business: prudential investors or bureaucratic intruders?
Governments around the world are attempting to ‘invest' in infrastructure for the perceived ‘future needs' of their nations.
Locally, New Zealand and Australian governments have spent the past thirty years corporatising and privatising formerly government-owned incumbents, and liberalising the telecommunications markets by removing regulatory barriers to competition and inducing private sector entry via mechanisms such as access regulation and local loop unbundling.
Now, government-funded National Broadband Networks are now being rolled out to cope with these future challenges, real or imagined.
What motivates these government investments that appear to be turning the industry ownership clock back 30 years ? What are they likely to achieve? And why can't the market deliver such outcomes? Indeed, what are the desirable outcomes?
To speak on these issues is Bronwyn Howell, an internationally noted authority on broadband. Ms Howell is General Manager of the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation at Victoria University of Wellington. An economist by training, she has considerable research experience, and has written widely on broadband, telecommunications, internet copyright and property rights in Australasian, North American and European contexts. CIS NZ Policy Analyst Luke Malpass will chair this event and a second speaker is to be advised.
Thursday, 25 February 2010, 6:00pm - 7:00pm in the PP McGuinness Library followed by refreshments.
Cost: Members - free, Non-Members - $11 payable in advance by credit card.
Booking: Places are limited and reservations essential.
To book, please email CIS Events Assistant, Alanna Elliott, at aelliott@cis.org.au or call (02) 9438 4377.