National Broadcasting Policy addresses broadcasting matters, including regulation, spectrum management, and broadcasting content. Despite the process of “convergence,” driven by the ubiquity of Internet Protocol encoding of content, it is still practical to make policy, law and regulation for traditional broadcast media separately from ICT and online media7. The National Broadcasting Policy will provide over-arching policy guidance for the Government in relation to future decision-making and legislation for the broadcasting sector, and for broadcasters and regulators in complying with or giving effect to legislation or regulations. The National ICT Policy will operate alongside the National Broadcasting Policy and should be read together with it. Information on ICT in Solomon Islands 13. In developing and implementing policy for the ICT sector it is highly desirable to have data regarding current circumstances that are accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date. In this respect, the Solomon Islands faces a significant challenge: data relevant to investment in, deployment of, and use of ICT are scarce. 14. Information about the systems and hardware already in use in Solomon Islands, including in Government offices, is incomplete. Several valuable IT audits have been carried out by the ICT Support Unit (“ICTSU”) within the Ministry of Finance. ICTSU has also begun to catalogue equipment and systems as Ministries begin migrating to the SIGConnect platform administered by ICTSU. A comprehensive picture of Government’s ICT use is not available at this time. Nor is much information available about access to, spending on, or use of ICT by businesses or the public. 15. At the present time, however, it is possible to draw on data relating to ICT that are disclosed in a small number of Solomon Islands studies; data gathered by regulators including the Telecommunications Commission; and data collated by regional and global comparative studies. Such data are cited where relevant, in the following pages. 7 One way of characterizing the difference between broadcast and other media is as follows: “Pull media are passive, there if you want them. Examples are the traditional media, such as radio and television, over which you have control to pull in a message. You can turn them on or off. You can pick up a newspaper, magazine or book and put it down. You can go to a movie or not. By contrast, push media propel messages at you whether invited or not. An example would be a recorded voice in a grocery store aisle that encourages you to buy a certain brand of cornflakes, as you pass by the cereals. Push media are always on.” <http://www.uvm.edu/~tpatters/pcom/pullpush.html>. Page | 10 Solomon Islands National ICT Policy