International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

NEW CHALLENGES: CONVERGENCE OF MARKETS, DIVERGENCE OF THE LAWS? QUESTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS REGULATION
By Bernd Holznagel

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 5-2-1999

Abstract

The future of the media is digital. It is a known fact that data reduction and data compression lead to a multiplication of transmission capacities. Also, new forms of programming and marketing such as teleservices and media services or video-on-demand are developed. Another effect of the digitalization is compatibility of transmission methods as well as compatibility of the equipment. Digitalization makes it possible to overcome the separation between different networks. For instance, already today the so-called ADSL-technology allows the transmission of full-length movies to your computer monitor at home over ordinary telephone networks. On the other hand, it is possible to transact phone conversations and to use Internet applications over broad band cable networks. For the user of the new media it seems possible that phone, TV and PC could soon melt into one single multimedia-terminal, which unites all the aforementioned forms of communications into itself. With "Web-TV", which lets you access the Internet through an ordinary television set, the first step into this direction has already been made.

So digitalization allows accessing multimedia networks with multifunctional terminals. This technical process of integration of different forms of communication, which used to be separated from each other to the uniform concept of "multimedia", is called convergence. The already recognizable trend towards convergence will be considerably reinforced, when the EU – like the USA - decides to have an analog switch-off in the year 2006. In Germany the transition to the digital world is planned for the year 2010. It can be expected, that then approximately 50 percent of the spectrum of the frequencies will be freed up for new multimedia uses.