🚀 go-pugleaf

FYI - a very powerful *international* statement about the Information Age.
It should clearly remind us that if a government - at *any* level - does
not consider international implications, it will be a major mistake. 

Pls take note of the ability of emerging countries to be able to 'leapfrog' 
many of the technology stages that the established countries have gone
through, e.g. they will not go through the ISDN BRI/PRI stage based on the
exploitation of an existing copper ('mainframe') infrastructure.  This
does not mean that this stage is not of value to us, but we had better not
be content to stay at this sub-broadband level very long! 

Ted 
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G-7 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY (dated Jan 28,95)

   FOREWORD

   At their Naples summit in July, G-7 leaders welcomed encouraging signs
that economic recovery is underway.  However, they deplored the fact that
unemployment remains far too high and pledged to fight against this
unacceptable waste of human resources.  They agreed to continue working
towards economic growth and stability, and to accelerate reforms that will
improve the capacity of our economies to create jobs and to enhance
standards of living. In particular, they emphasized the necessity of
encouraging the development of a worldwide information society, and they
agreed that the relevant ministers should meet in Brussels to begin
working towards this objective. 

   The European Commission is glad to convene this G-7 ministerial
conference on 25 and 26 February 1995. 

   COMMON RULES FOR THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY

   Towards  collaboration  on  the  basis  of a shared vision and common
principles

o  A shared vision of human enrichment...

   Throughout the world, information and communication technologies are
generating a new revolution that is carrying mankind forward into the
Information Age.  It is a revolution centered on the electronic
processing, storage, retrieval and communications of information. 

   As we enter the information age, the movement of information is joining
the movement of people and goods as an activity of enormous social and
economic importance.  For those able to exploit it, the information
society is already a liberating experience which widens individual choice,
releases new creative and commercial energies, offers cultural enrichment
and brings greater flexibility to the management of working and leisure
time. 

   The information society is not only affecting the ways humans interact,
but is also having a fundamental impact on our traditional organizational
structures.  Usually rigid and hierarchical, we can expect those to give
way to more flexible, decentralised and participatory models which will
transform the workings of society, the economy, and public and private
institutions. 

   A consensus has been emerging between G-7 governments in recent months
that the development of the global information infrastructure and of its
applications is one of the most important initiatives that must be taken
in this last decade of the 20th century. 

   The potential rewards are enticing:  better social integration; the
recovery of our sense of community;  enhancing the progress of democratic
values and sharing as well as preserving cultural creativity, traditions
and identities;  improving the quality of life; a stimulus to economic
growth, job creation and higher economic efficiency;  a better balance in
economic and social progress between nations;  a smoother integration of
developing countries into the global economy;  the capacity to solve
common societal problems. 

   These gains could be denied us unless we pursue them together.

o  Realized by means of collaboration...

   Like all societies, the global information society needs to be built on
a set of common rules, a tolerance of diversity and habits of
collaboration.  Easing its birth, like dealing with all major "shifts",
means overcoming uncertainties and a break in continuity.  While it is
bringing our world closer together, existing differences between national
systems are becoming more apparent and the difficulties they create are
worsening. 

   Most countries around the world have shaped their own national
political visions of the information society.  As they become a reality,
they must ensure that the networks of networks is transformed into a
global information infrastructure.  This task will require unprecedented
international cooperation. 

   It also cries out for a political vision and a strategy at a global
level for achieving the information society. In reality, national actions
are falling short of what our citizens and economic actors expect and
require.  Aware that public and private investment needs to be
accelerated, G-7 governments also know that they have a fundamental
responsibility to ease the transition towards the new age, and that its
realization will requlre long-term collaboration between, among others,
economic actors, academic and public authorities.  Their ability to
guarantee each citizen the right to access to the global information
infrastructure and to maximize the benefits, while controlling potential
risks is the key objective to be pursued. 

   Finally, the information society will contribute to an easier
integration of developing countries into the global economy.  The progress
of democracy, education and training will be favored by a much easier
access to human knowledge and a constant exchange of information.  New
information and communications technologies, increasingly affordable as
their costs continue to fall, will help developing nations "leapfrog"
entire stages of development in setting up their own infrastructures.  G-7
members will need to provide information and support, especially for
less-advanced countries.  In this respect, the possibility of involving
third countries in collaborative actions, especially less advanced nations
which lack the capacity to act alone, is of great importance. 

o  Guided by common principles

   Close collaboration at the highest level will enable our countries to
play a fundamentally catalytic role.  With this firmly in mind, the G-7
governments should begin a joint reflection defining the common ground for
international cooperation.  They should also launch several concrete
actions whose purpose is to ensure the interoperability of networks,
information processing systems and applications. In this way, each citizen
may eventually gain access to the information society. 

   The overall objective of citizen's access will be served by eight core
principles which should guide the development of the global information
society: 

 - promoting fair competition;
 - encouraging private investment;
 - defining an adaptable regulatory framework;
 - providing open access to networks;
while
 - ensuring universal provision of and access to services
 - promoting equality of opportunity to the citizen;
 - promoting diversity of content, including cultural and linguistic
   diversity;
 - recognizing the necessity of worldwide  cooperation with
   particular attention to less developed countries.

   These principles will apply to the Global Information Infrastructure 
by means of:

 - promotion of interconnectivity and interoperability; 
 - developing global markets for networks, services and applications; 
 - ensuring privacy and data security; 
 - protecting intellectual property rights; 
 - cooperating in R&D and in the development of new applications; 
 - monitoring of the social and societal implications of the information
   society.

   This paper offers more detailed reflections on the global aspects of
the information society to help guide the work of the conference. 

   REGULATORY FRAMEWORK, COMPETITION POLICY AND MARKET ACCESS

o  Current regulations need to evolve...

   Over the last decade, regulatory regimes have been so undermined by
technological and market forces that they no longer respond to current
commercial and technological realities.  As a consequence, outdated
regulatory frameworks inhibit initiatives from users as well as service
providers.  There is a clear need to implement new "rules of the game" as
soon as possible.  This will pave the way for increased investment and
usage. 

   Changes in regulatory conditions are needed to accommodate such current
major trends as rapid technological change in both information processing
and communications, the growth in wire as well as wireless commmunications, 
globalization of activities, the emergence of multimedia applications and
the related web of concentrations and alliances. 

   The operating environment will be based on competition and common
standards for interconnectivity and interoperability.  For its part, the
regulatory framework will need a certain flexibility to meet complementary
objectives:  it must be capable of evolving with time, of attracting
substantial public and private investment into the sector, of allowing the
market to meet user demands and of developing fundamental social
objectives. 

o  New ones should grow global competition

   Competition authorities must ensure a competitive environment aiming at
innovation and consumer satisfaction. They also must work with the
emerging regulatory framework so as to permit the establishment of global
players while guarding against the risks of market dominance. This involves
defining the legal conditions and obligations in which mergers and
alliances can take place, while also ensuring a competitive environment
aiming at innovation and consumer satisfaction.  Moreover, much greater
regulatory and market flexibility must be allowed in the operations of
telecommunications and TV networks so as to widen the choice of basic
infrasctuctures over which services can be delivered. Finally, mobile and
personal communications can only deliver their full potential if licenses
are granted on a fair basis, and if fixed and mobile networks and services
are allowed to develop new combinations in a competitive market environment.

   This is an important regulatory agenda which cannot be fulfilled by
national governments alone.  International organizations, in particular
ITU, WTO, ISO and WIPO, also carry significant responsibilities and should
pursue their on-going activities in line with the six principles
identified.  Moreover, international bodies such as the OECD should be
encouraged to proceed with their precursory analytical work. 

   However, the quick and effective progress required for an open,
competitive global information infrastructure demands that the G-7 defines
common ground on the regulatory and competition issues, and then addresses
the practical steps which should follow without delay. 

o  Building a regulatory framework based on common principles

   The G-7 partners clearly agree that open and fair competition is the
best way to stimulate investment, innovation, cost-reduction, and
responsiveness to changing demand.  This competition must take place
within mutually compatible regulatory frameworks which allow G-7 members
to pursue similar policy goals, and to achieve them in different ways
according to prevailing national circumstances. Therefore, they share a
strong common interest in discussing the essential characteristics of a
framework which ensures coherent and compatible regulation.  Four priority
issues should be addressed in this context: 

1. Opening up markets: liberalization of equipment, services and
   infrastucture.

   Network operators and service providers need to be able to purchase
equipment at reasonable prices and to be able to connect that equipment to
the infrastructure.  The additional manufacturing costs imposed by
different regional/national attachment standards are significant and often
pose an obstacle to business development. The provision of virtually all
types of equipment has been opened to competition in every G-7 country. 
Liberalization at the international level should be accelerated through
agreements on mutual recognition of type approval, and agreements on
procurement. 

   Most G-7 countries have liberalized, or are in the process of
liberalizing, all mobile, satellite and other telecommunications services
except public voice telephony.  However, several have gone further down
the liberalization road and allow competition in part or all of the public
voice telephony market.  Ultimately, this approach needs to prevail in
order to make the information society a reality. 

   The development of the required global network is driven by
technological innovation and market liberalization.  The Information
Society cannot rely solely on the traditional telephony network and
requires instead massive investments in modern infrastructures. In setting
the scene for multimedia applications, freedom to choose the underlying
infrastructure including TV networks for their delivery is a major
stimulant for the launching of such services. Existing regulatory
approaches, which distinguish between applications and the underlying
infrastructure for their delivery, will no longer be appropriate.  They
are becoming gradually less efficient in an environment of converging
media, and have the effect of discouraging investment in both inforrnation
infrastructures and applications, while also inhibiting usage. 

2. Universal service

   Access to information is a basic right for every citizen.  The
information infrastructure will be vitally important for social and
economic interaction and integration.  The benefits of the information
society should not be limited to business, but should be available to
society as a whole.  Social cohesion both in a national context as well as
on a world scale requires that all citizens, wherever they live, can
benefit from essential information services at an affordable price. 

   In a global network, all market players should make a fair contribution
to the provision of universal service without impact on their ability to
compete.  Consequently, although regulation should ensure the development
of universal service, it ought not to deter the competitive supply of
services aiming at consumer satisfaction providing each competitor makes a
fair contribution to the delivery of universal services through
cost-oriented access charges. 

   Work already under way on defining the scope of universal service and
the shape of its financing mechanisms must give a stonger emphasis to
concertation between G-7 members. 

3. Optimal deployment of networks: interconnection, interoperability and
   standards

   The information society is based on a network employing information
technology and a modern communications infrastructure. Because the means
of carrying information are so diverse and the systems to handle and
deliver it so heterogeneous, there is a danger of creating islands of
networks which cannot communicate with each other because of technical
incompatibilities. If this were to happen, the development of new products
and services would be impeded as well as their availability worldwide. 

   G-7 members should, therefore, promote an international consensus on
common principles governing access to networks and their applications,
their use and interoperability.  These should be applied in line with the
principles of transparency and non-discrimination in order to allow all
users to enjoy the benefits of open networks.  Furthermore,
interoperability problems will be minimized by interconnecting high speed
networks and applications test beds of as many nations as possible. 

   G-7 governments are invited to express their support for a consensual
standardization process amongst all actors, public and private, which is
open, voluntary and market-led and which is responsive to the needs of an
emerging competitive environment. They are also invited to call for
greater flexibility in the workings of the official standardization bodies
so that they can validate this process internationally. This approach
would help to avoid two pitfalls. On the one hand, the unilateral
imposition of mandatory standards by public authorities and, on the other,
the emergence of defacto standards from monopolistic market positions. 
In this context, the practice of using "interoperability test beds" should
be encouraged. 

4. Fair and effective allocation of scarce resources: licensing
   conditions and frequency allocation.

   Mobile, personal and satellite communications are growing fast. G-7
countries are in agreement that their full development needs open,
non-discriminatory and transparent licensing procedures assessed on
objective criteria, but also the availability of adequate frequency
spectrum and numbering allocation. This is particularly relevant in the
field of Low Earth Orbit satellite systems. 

   One of the main tasks for the regulators is to prevent the emergence of
discrimination in markets by ensuring that the international consequences
of national decisions are properly assessed. 

o  Competition policy in a new environment

   The application of competition policy to the information society is
critically important, bearing in mind its intrinsically international
dimension, the increasingly integrated structure of its actors and the
emergence of market dominating providers.  Moreover, economic and
commercial interdependence is growing as markets become globalized with
sometimes unforeseen spill-over effects. 

   As well as liberalization and access to infrastructure, a key element
in the introduction of competition has been to separate the players from
the referee;  that is, operating have been divorecd from regulatory
functions with quite far-reaching consequences.  This separation has been
the starting point for profound organizational and ownership restructuring
among operators which has now developed its own positive momentum.

   Preventing abuse of dominant positions is of particular importance in
all aspects of the information society, applying to software and
audiovisual providers as well as computer and electronics manufacturers. 
It is a special concern in the telecommunications sector, where removal of
prious de jure monopolies and the introduction of competition may still
leave players with dominant positions. 

   Competition rules need to be interpreted and applied in the light of
these new realities.  Although they should encourage productive (and
indeed essential) forms of cooperation between companies such as mergers,
joint ventures, strategic alliances and collaborative R&D activlties, they
must shield against the risks of market dominance by new, powerful actors. 
Whenever cooperation between companies may have trans-border effects,
national and regional competition authorities must enter into
collaboration. 

   Competition policy also has a role to play in shaping the process of
internationalization. Competition authorities and regulators should be
asked to provide an accurate description of the legal framework and legal
projects in each country as a first step towards ensuring a compatible
competitive environment in the G-7.  They should also be encouraged to
meet regularly in international forums to report on the most important
evolutions in their respective countries.  On such occasions, they should
exchange views and information about the re-regulation process and cases
of global mergers and alliances that have emerged. 

   There is also multilateral work to be started or pursued in the
appropriate international organisations. 

o  Market Access

   Global customers need global systems, which implies that multilateral
agreements as well as complementary bilateral negotiations are needed to
remove obstacles to market access. 

   G-7 members need to tackle market obstacles which arise from
differences in their respective regulatory frameworks and from the process
of liberalisation. In doing so, they should be guided by the principle of
non-discrimination. 

   The information society has a direct stake in the WTO negotiations over
the next two years on "basic" telecommunications, which will focus
particularly on voice telephony. 

   Negotiations should not only result in the exchange of commitments on
market access, but they should also help to set the ground-rules for the
future.  They should be especially useful in clarifying how the relevant
WTO principles will apply to such particular issues as limited access to
frequencies, global personal communication and the supply of international
services. 

o  Protection and rights

   A number of priority actions have to be taken at the international
level in order to be effectively and safely used by the citizen. 

o  Privacy and personal data

   The protection of privacy and personal data is a fundamental principle
in our democratic societies. It will play an essential role in maintaining 
public confidence in an information society where information on lifestyles 
and consumption patterns could otherwise be used for non-authorized
purposes.  Significant differences in the degrees of protection provided
at regional and national levels are likely to deter citizens use of the
global information infrastucture, or to act as trade barriers.  A
concerted approach at the international level is called for. 

o  Reliability, security, confidentiality

   The information society cannot develop without reliability, secure
systems and confidentiality.  Users must be guaranteed effective
protection against piracy, illegal manipulation of information and the
loss of sensitive information.  Network integrity has to be ensured at all
times. 

   Nevertheless, due regard should be given to the need for governments,
in accordance with national law, the principles of data protection,
international agreements on human rights, and the free trade practice to
intercept information for the investigation of crime and the protection of
national security. 

o  Intellectual and industrial property

   The protection of copyright and other intellectual property rights must
address the challenge posed by digitization.  A properly functioning
information society must encourage the international circulation of ideas
whilst guarding against the easy opportunity it offers to reproduce,
broadcast, modify and use works without the authorization of the right
owner.  A fair and rewarding remuneration for creativity and invention as
well as for investment by those who purchase rights or who put together
material from other sources to create new products, such as databases,
should be ensured.  Getting this balance right is going to be essential to
the development of the Information Society. 

   Existing intellectual and industrial property regimes should be
reviewed to ensure that they do strike the right balance between
protecting right holders and circulating knowledge.  They must enable the
identification of the author and provide right owners with fair
remuneration and reward for investment, creativity and invention.  Modern
systems also need to be developed for authorizing the use of protected
works, especially through multimedia technology.  This is of particular
interest to non-profit organisations which should also benefit from
preferential conditions. 

   All of which necessitates a thorough analysis of existing intellectual
property rights regimes to establish to what extent substantive
adaptations are required. G-7 countries should cooperate closely in such
work, together with other interested countries, not only to adhere to a
common framework amongst themselves, but also to contribute to
international negotiations taking place within WIPO, to achieve
non-discriminatory, high-level, intellectual property protection which is
essential to the healthy development of the information society. 

   PEOPLE'S INVOLVEMENT, SOCIAL AND SOCIETAL IMPACT

   The scale and pace of improvements in social welfare and progress will
depend heavily on how well the ground is prepared.  The social and
societal benefits of the information infrastructure will be all the better
for an approach which aims at the highest possible levels of participation, 
rather than alternatives which might lead to the emergence of two classes
of citizens.  This section seeks to identify what needs to be done to
encourage our population to accept and use the information society, and
explores its possible consequences for the organization of our societies. 

o  Equal opportunity to participate

   The information society touches virtually all aspects of human
existence:  culture, social behaviour and family life, health, politics,
work, entertainment, learning and training and patterns of consumption. 

   But participation in the information society will not be as universal
as possible if its development is not properly managed. Some "drop-outs"
are inevitable, but a two tier society must be avoided.  To do so, we need
first to understand more about the possible impacts of the new information
services on the organization of our societies.  This should be the subject
of a collaborative in-depth evaluation whose conclusions would help to
handle the possible risks and to maximise the potential benefits.  The
target will be to keep numbers of the marginalized low by training and
access to the information technologies. 

   G-7 members clearly share an interest in collaborating and exchanging
information on these matters since all industrialized democratic countries
face similar social and societal challenges.