  This exploratory and descriptive research compares the policy-making
processes and policy recommendations regarding universal service and universal
access developed by the U.S. National Information Infrastructure Advisory
Council (NIIAC) and the Canadian Information Highway Advisory Council (IHAC) in
conjunction with related federal government agencies. Created in 1993 and 1994,
respectively, the Councils were charged with "bringing forward" the concepts of
universal service and universal access to adjust to the effects of
deregulation, new and converged Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs), and neo-liberal economic competition and globalization that included
acknowledging the private sector as the primary creator of the Information
Highway.This qualitative study used as its methodology organizational, policy,
narrative, and discourse analyses to create a picture of what universal service
and universal access were and what they became in the hands of NIIAC, IHAC. The
U.S. had started with a more clearly defined universal service tradition than
Canada, and undertook a more complex policy-making process with more
experienced personnel. It was also clear that IHAC had in many ways followed
the U.S. model and arrived at many similar recommendations as NIIAC. Because of
the inevitability of technical, economic, and social change related to the
Information Highway, no definitive outcome to the Universal Service and
Universal Access "story" can be determined. Because the Canadian government did
not follow up on some of IHAC's most crucial recommendations, the Canadian
Information Highway "story," in particular, has been left less complete than
that of the U.S.
