ABSTRACT
The perennial topic of universal access or universal service (UA/S) policy has received renewed attention as a result of the growth of the electronic highway, here referred to by the slightly-inaccurate term ‘Internet’. This attention stems in part from the fact that services available over the Internet are seen by some as valuable candidates for universal provision, or at least for targeted subsidies to certain groups. Another factor is that increasing competition is progressively undercutting the provider subsidies that have been the traditional means of paying for UA/S: conventional providers of telecommunications services face eroding profit margins, while their UA/S provision or payment obligations provide a regulatory cost advantage to ‘unconventional’ providers. This bypass effect is strengthened by the current non-economic pricing of Internet access and usage, leading some to suggest that Internet service providers (ISPs) should be subjected to the same obligations to contribute to UA/S funds as other providers of telephony services. Others commentators, viewing the same developments, have concluded that the innate efficiency of these alternative providers and the nearly complete solution of the access part of the UA/S problem signal the end for UA/S policies, or at least suggest that ISPs should be considered as alternative UA/S providers.
