city university london school of social sciences convergence of ...

telecommunications sector that is also necessary in a convergent environment.Nevertheless, there is still much to do in regulatory framework in order to deal withconvergence. For example, because of lack of a converged regulatory framework,market players providing converged services are subject to regulatory burden. Also,as there are a couple of conglomerates dominating the broadcasting market becauseof ineffective regulation of the sector, objectives of plurality and diversity areperceived to get harmed. In addition to this, spectrum management is being held bydifferent institutes in the country against the recommendations of ITU and OECD.In order to deal with mentioned challenges and let convergence to develop in thecountry it is seen necessary to progressively introduce a new regulatory model tocover whole range of existing and new services. It is clear that coordination,consistency and technologically neutral policies that convergence necessitates aremore likely to be accomplished by one single converged regulator. Taking this intoaccount, it is considered appropriate for Turkey to establish a single convergedregulator covering telecommunications, broadcasting and information technologiessector. However, its timing seems to be a little early since convergence necessitatesrelying on market powers as markets change faster than regulations and thisnecessitates a shift from ex-ante to ex-post regulations. The problem stems fromtelecommunications sector. Since liberalization in the sector realized only in 2004, itis still early to talk about a fully competitive sector. As a consequence, some detailedex-ante regulation is still needed in telecommunications sector. For establishment ofthe single converged regulator, the year 2014 is proposed. Because, digitalswitchover is planned to take place at that date, spectrum will no longer be a scarceresource it is considered that broadcasting sector can be upgraded and ruled bycompetition law principles henceforth. Also, competition in telecommunicationssector is evolving rapidly and telecommunications regulator is working hard onestablishing a competitive environment in the country. As a result 2014 seems like anappropriate date to establish a converged regulator in Turkey.48