Australia's post-July 1997 telecommunications regulation in international context

The telecommunications industry is becoming increasingly internationalized. As a result international bodies such as the EU, ITU, OECD and WTO are taking an increasing interest in harmonizing regulatory principles so as to minimize regulatory asymmetries in regard to market access and operating conditions which can affect competitive and technological neutrality, This raises the question of the extent to which reforms to a country's regulatory regime should be in harmony with developments internationally, By way of a case study, this paper considers Australia's post-duly 1997 regulatory regime for telecommunications in an international context. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.