Suchergebnisse

This article provides a concise discussion on two important aspects to the national broadband network (NBN) being constructed in Australia. The material is extracted from a monograph to be published by the DEHub (Bowles, 2011) and is, in part, based on international research for Innovation and Business Skills Australia that was completed as part of the University of Tasmania's Digital Economy and Regional Futures initiative (Bowles & Wilson, 2010). While the article in no way seeks to undermine the significance of the investment by the Australian Government in the NBN, further detail is added to remove the existing hyperbole and appraise two important aspects of the infrastructure build: firstly, analysing Australia's comparative position in the race by nations to compete in the Digital Economy; and rediscovering the importance of quality of the broadband connection as distinct from a too-narrow focus on high speed. Adapted from the source document.

In October 2012 the University of Canberra's Faculty of Arts and Design hosted a public symposium on the topic of "Converging on an NBN Future: Content, Connectivity, and Control." Featuring thirteen speakers from industry, government and academia, with input from an engaged audience, the symposium raised and discussed a variety of critical questions relating to the National Broadband Network (NBN) as it commences widespread operations in Australia. This paper provides an overview of symposium presentations, organised around common themes, and concludes with a summary of recommendations that emerged from the insights of presenters and the audience. While the symposium participants recognise the potential for change in the scope and scale of the NBN2 once the next federal parliamentary election has been concluded, discussion at the symposium focused on the current vision for the network, as a wholesale-only, open-access network providing fibre-optic cable connectivity to 93% of Australian premises, with the remaining 7% to be served by fixed wireless or satellite connectivity (Wong and Conroy 2010). At the time of the symposium the reference document guiding the development of the NBN was the 2012-2015 Corporate Plan (NBN Co Limited 2012). The government's vision for realising the benefits of the National Broadband Network is set out in the 2011 National Digital Economy Strategy (Australian Government 2011). ; Middleton, C., Park, S., & Allen, M. (2013). Converging on an NBN future: Content, connectivity, and control – a symposium overview. Telecommunications Journal of Australia, 63(1), 70-81.

The convergence of suburban homes and digital media and communications technologies is set to undergo a major shift as next-generation broadband infrastructures are installed. Embodied in the Australian Government's National Broadband Network (NBN) and the delivery of fibre-optic cable to the front door of every suburban home, is an anticipated future of digital living that will transform the landscape and experience of suburban life. Drawing from our research, and from industry, policy and media documents, we map some scenarios of the NBN rollout in its early stages to show that this imaginary of seamless broadband in the suburbs and the transformation of digital homes it anticipates is challenged by local cultural and material geographies, which we describe as a politics of spectrum.

This paper approaches the debate on corporate power through a framework informed by Habermas's concepts of the legitimation of political orders. It problematizes corporate power as a new political order that needs to extract legitimation from the public, and the agenda-setting power of the mass media as a strategic asset in achieving this end. Through a case study of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's coverage of a high-profile issue involving both corporate and state malfeasance—the so-called NBN-ZTE scandal—this paper shows that corporate power was portrayed as non-political and outside the realm of public scrutiny, accomplished through three features of the coverage: a low amount of coverage on the theme of corporate malfeasance; the construction of the involved corporation's identity that emphasized its nationality above all other aspects, including ownership, control, and corporate history; and lastly, the representation of its actions as either devoid of agency, or as the responsibility of other agents. The study also identifies processes and institutions relating to the production of news by the Inquirer and the definition of issues by agents in society, particularly the Philippine Senate and members of the public, which accounted for this portrayal. Finally, the study explores the possibility that the legitimation of corporate power, in the Philippine context, may be achieved by the complete circumvention of the democratic pressures of the public sphere.

Many different companies have decisively embraced the New Business Narrative focused on the Stakeholder Theory and it has been part of the ethos of leading companies worldwide for some time now. However, a systematic process has not been developed to identify an organisation's withdrawn or distributed value for its different stakeholders in monetary terms. Accounting is inadequate for this purpose and the current information system therefore needs to be expanded. This article reflects on Stakeholder Accounting [SA]. Based on the multi-faceted model, it proposes broadening the value concept to also include price-based transactions, transfers performed in a non-market environment (and without consideration), and emotional ones. Moreover, it proposes expanding from a one-dimensional perspective, focused on shareholders, to a multi-dimensional including all the stakeholders of the organisation. The rest of the article reflects on the multiple experiences generated over the last ten years, along with the applicability, the potential and the implications of this accounting both for organisations and for their stakeholders.
Received: 11 November 2021Accepted: 18 February 2022

Critical social and economic resources, such as employment, education, and health services, increasingly require online access, highlighting the growing need to address equity of access to high-speed broadband telecommunications. Ensuring access to broadband requires the necessary infrastructure which, in Australia, is the National Broadband Network (NBN). In this paper, we use policy implementation theory to examine the translation of the government's NBN policy into service delivery, specifically in relation to the choice of policy instruments to install the broadband infrastructure, the associated barriers and enablers to their implementation, and the equity considerations that are emerging as the policy is implemented. We conducted a rapid review of NBN policy documents and academic and grey literature to map the NBN policy instruments and to examine how key contextual, political, and technical aspects of NBN policy implementation are likely to affect equity. Our findings indicate a range of equity concerns in the implementation of NBN policy. The instrument choice of a public–private 'hybrid' organisation to implement NBN policy has created a fertile ground for competing political, social, and commercial priorities, thereby affecting how the policy is implemented and thus increasing the risks to equity as it competes with other priorities. As these mixed public–private instruments become more prevalent as policy tools to deliver major infrastructure, determining the best means to safeguard equity is a vital consideration to ensure the benefits are distributed fairly.

In April 2009, the Australian Government announced plans to roll-out the National Broadband Network (NBN) Company Open Access Network in Australia. Australia's NBN will bring high speed internet access to areas and people that otherwise would have been without. Predicting consequences (both positive and negative) arising from the NBN, as well as risks and opportunities that it will generate differentially between places, groups and sectors, is inherently uncertain. With little reliable data available on social impacts of NBN-style access at the household and community level, policy-making and regulation risks responding to optimistic speculation and commercially motivated spin rather than carefully weighed evidence. The research reported in this paper aimed to address this gap with a preliminary assessment of the social impacts of the NBN-like broadband roll-out at one New South Wales test site in southwest Sydney. The paper discusses the research methods and findings and frames recommendations for further research to address both limitations that arose in the research reported here, and broader gaps in understanding the social impacts of new forms of broadband access and associated applications. ; 20 page(s)