Back to the basics: Regulating a liberalised and privatised communications sector

This article proposes the use of In formation Theory as the logical basis for new regulatory regimes in newly liberalised and privatised communications systems, particularly in light of convergence and globalisation. Information Theory builds on the basic building blocks of all communications (sender, receiver, channel, message, encoding, and noise) so it can serve as a model for all current and future communications regulation. A regulatory framework based on this model does not dictate any particular policy goal or outcome and can be used by many governments with different policies. Such a model can be applied consistently, at the local and regional levels for both communication-specific laws and competition regulation for the communications sector. Because the model focuses on functions, rather than technology, it can avoid dual regulation for the same service and ensure that similar services are treated similarly.