This research seeks to identify the differing national perspectives towards security and the "gigabit race" as those nations transition to their next generation broadband networks. Its aim is to critically appraise the rationales for their existing digital security frameworks in order to determine whether (and what) Australia can learn from the alternative legislative and regulatory frameworks implemented by key nations and trading blocks. This paper provides an outline of the research motivation and direction. The research will fill major knowledge gaps about the motivation, rationale, legal and social implementation, and impacts on security for next generation broadband networks and will inform the development of digital security and communications policies. [For full proceedings, see ED571459.]