Residential consumers and ‘rejected knowledge’. Exploring and acknowledging the margins in broadband services in Australia

It is important for residential consumers to have the economic, institutional and conceptual space and independence to conduct their own sustained reflection and research regarding converging communications technologies. This independence is likely to lead to different constructions of knowledge and discourse, and to suggest a different set of cultural practices, compared with that currently dominating industry and government policy making and research. An example of research by residential consumer groups in relation to broadband services in Australia in 1994 is examined, and suggestions are made for how consumer knowledge can be fostered to make a contribution to telecommunications policy.