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Also, it is stated by ITU (2002) that „it should also be considered that convergenceimplies an evolution and a possible reduction of traditional jobs, while, at the sametime, imposes the development of new skills (and consequently the need forspecialized education and training)‟ (p.2). Although this is not a direct effect ofconvergence on citizens, anyhow this situation affects the people working atconverging industries.While mentioning the effects of convergence on citizens, it is worth to advert that allcitizens will not benefit from convergence because of the differences in internetpenetration and computer concentration per household. According to this issue, ITU(2002) states that convergence is not going to reach the same level everywhere at thesame time, and even in the most advanced economies, all citizens are not going tobenefit from convergence since the beginning (p.2).At this point, it is important to emphasize that the words „consumer‟ and „citizen‟ aredifferent from each other. Consumers buy or use goods and/or services in the market,however citizens participate in society that also includes the market. It can beinterpreted from the definitions that citizen interest already covers the consumerinterest and anything that is for the benefit of consumers is already for the benefit ofcitizens. The point that consumer interest and citizen interest are differentiated isexplained by UK government as follows: „The consumer interest referred to aneconomic focus on networks and services, for the benefit of individuals; by contrast,the citizen interest referred to a cultural focus on content, for the benefit of thecommunity‟ (Livingstone:2008 p.2).When referring to the impact of convergence on society, different words like „endusers‟, „customers‟, „viewers‟ or „citizens‟ are used in the literature, as it can be seenabove. It can be interpreted that economic issues such as availability andaffordability are more likely to meet the interests of consumers whereas socialbenefits of convergence as advanced information infrastructure and bettereducational opportunities are more likely to meet the interests of citizens.To wrap up, convergence has many benefits on consumers and citizens as it is stated23
above. In order for them to enjoy these benefits, a proper regulatory framework isimportant which is sensitive to consumer rights, avoids regulatory overlaps,encourages market players to investment and avoids barriers for the development ofconvergent markets.2.3.4.3. Regulation’s Effects on Quality of Service, Security, Privacy andIntellectual Property RightsConvergence and its regulation also have some effects on quality of service, security,privacy and intellectual property rights issues.When we look at quality of service issue, it is possible to examine quality of serviceindicators in two different groups as product quality and consumer service quality.Product quality includes applications and network service reliability and quality suchas, voice and video quality, call completion rate, delivery times and reliability ofmessages whilst consumer service quality includes issues such as billing andcomplaints handling.While analysing the effects of convergence and its regulation on quality of service, itwould be a good starting point to express that technological advancements that leadto convergence, also enable competition between companies. This has a positiveeffect on quality of service especially in terms of product quality. So it wouldn‟t bewrong to argue that convergence and competition go in parallel and there is highquality of service where there is convergence. With advanced technology andincreasing competition, there is improvement in technological parameters such aspicture, video sound and voice quality today. When it comes to the second subgroupof quality of service indicators -consumer service quality- it is of crucial importancefor market players to focus on improvement in consumer services keeping in mindthat demand is amongst the important factors that shape converging markets. Thisleads to better results in terms of consumer service quality. As it is mentioned above,convergence takes place together with competition and competition is another factorthat provides amelioration on quality of service. Atubra and Frempong (2001) statethat, competition has potential to lead existing network providers to focus attentionon improvement in consumer service (p.206) and this probably means better quality24
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