Franco Papandrea is Professor of Communication and Director of the Communication and Media Policy Institute at the University of Canberra. The Institute is a specialist professional unit of the University of Canberra dedicated to policy-relevant research and analysis of broadcasting, communications and information technology issues, and the provision of related consultancy services. Currently, he is also Editor of Agenda — a journal of policy analysis and reform published by the Faculty of Economics and Commerce of The Australian National University where he is also appointed as a Visiting Fellow. Previously, he held a Visiting Research Professorship in the Faculty of Business, University of Alberta, Canada, for the three years to September 1999, and was the principal adviser to the House of Representatives Select Committee on the Print Media (1991-92).

Professor Papandrea has more than 25 years’ experience in research and policy analysis at senior levels in the government sector including 10 years as a Research Leader in the former Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE). At the BTCE, he led many major research studies on broadcasting and communications economics and policy issues and was the principal author of several major reports and papers.

Professor Papandrea’s research and consultancy services are in high demand. Appointments on major recent projects include:

• regulatory economics expert on the review and expansion of the access list determination for mandated access to telecommunications services for Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (in conjunction with Gilbert + Tobin);
• development of a methodology for the classification of telephone numbers on the basis of their word-making potential and for the estimation of reserve prices to be used in auctions of valuable Free and Local Rate telephone numbers for Australian Communications Authority;
• principal telecommunications economics and reform specialist in major consultancy commissioned by the Asian Development Bank to advise on regulatory reform in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (in conjunction with AAS Consulting);
• economic expert and deputy director for a national feasibility study of the establishment of broadband access centres in remote indigenous communities (in conjunction with Peter Farr Consultants Australasia) for the Australian Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts;
• major research studies of e-commerce for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and the development of a published guide to e-commerce for rural and regional small enterprises;
• major assignments on communications regulatory issues for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission including a review of Telstra’s costs for the provision of access to unbundled local loops to competitors, and a review of the regulatory compliance of Telstra’s ADSL pricing;
• valuation of narrocasting spectrum licences for the Australian Communications Authority;
• review of the Victorian Government’s state-wide communications network, including assessment of extending the network to enable community access to government services (with AAS Consulting Pty Ltd);
• analysis of the use of communications services in the education and training sector for the Australian National Training Authority (through the Victorian Department of Employment Education and Training);
• major research projects on bundling of communications services, and on convergence of communication and broadcasting services, funded by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts; and
• advisory services on telecommunications regulatory and pricing issues to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and to major communications service providers.

Professor Papandrea’s work has been widely published in monographs and refereed journals.

Other Professional Appointments

Editor, Agenda, a refereed journal of policy analysis and review published by the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, The Australian National University. (Previously Associate Editor).

Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Economics and Commerce, The Australian National University.

Member of the Steering Committee for the annual Communications Research Forum, the pre-eminent annual national conference on communications and media issues organised by the Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts.

Qualifications

Professor Papandrea holds a PhD in Public Policy, and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from the Australian National University, and a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA from the University of New South Wales.