International Telecommunications

Based on a policy-making theoretical framework and on the recent experiences of 10 developing countries, this study explores the factors that lead to the success or failure of the telecommunications reform. It provides universal conclusions that might help predict the success or failure of the telecommunications policies, such as, privatization, and liberalization, in other nations that are now moving toward reform.

China's economic and social progress toward modernization is one of the defining features of the last quarter of the 20th century. The emergence of China coincides with another development of equally important international implications--the revolution in information and telecommunication technology. But how compatible are the new China and the information age? The Chinese Communist Party intends to embrace market-oriented economic development while maintaining centralized control over politics, culture, and public discourse. The contradictions and tensions of this goal are especially acute in telecommunication and information technology markets, where the rest of the world is moving rapidly toward liberalization and globalization. Will China's economic reforms allow it to join the information revolution, or will its unique political structure keep it insulated from the main currents of global economic development? This volume is the first detailed examination of how China's reform process is playing out in the realm of information and telecommunications.

This work draws on and extends the theoretical framework developed by such authors as Richard Nelson, Sidney Winter, David Teece, Alfred Chandler, Nathan Rosenberg, and Christopher Freeman, through an empirical analysis of the evolution of the Japanese information and communications (IC) industry. Particular attention is paid to the development of a theory of the firm which is consistent with this empirical objective. The Japanese IC industry contains three main segments: computers and software, thelecommunications equipment, and semiconductors. The work asks: How did such Japanese companies as NTT, NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Sumitomo Electric manage to catch up and become some of the largest companies in the world. Why have they not been as successful in global markets as their counterparts in consumer electronics and automobiles? What role was played by NTT's system of controlled competition and by MITI? Based on over 600 personal interviews over eight years with Japanese leaders, this book provides new analyses and empirical material on this crucial industry.

This comprehensive book examines the current state of telecommunications in the Pacific Basin. The focus is on the economic, regulatory, and social change caused by the technological evolution, marketplace developments and institutional reorganization. The overall analysis of the volume evolves around a multi-stage evolutionary model of public telecommunications networks. The first part consists of analytic articles on the evolution of telecommunication networks in the region, a comparison of deregulation policies in the different countries, and an analysis of public and private cooperation in international informatics. The second part reviews telecommunications systems in individual countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and the United States.

Noam's book is the first major attempt to address the complicated economic and public policy issues of telecommunications in Europe. He provides a thorough discussion of the evolution of central telephone networks, equipment supply, new value-added networks, and new telecommunications-related services in a detailed country-by-country analysis.

The telecommunications industry is in the throes of rapid technological and regulatory change. Markets for terminals and services have been liberalized, and only the provision of networks has remained under the control of national operators. This book analyses from an economist's point of view the benefits which may be expected from the introduction of network competition in Europe, and describes how competition can be reconciled with social objectives. The author discusses the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications, network competition, policy in Europe and the USA, the European Commission's approach, and a strategy for network competition in Europe which takes into account both the latest developments and the characteristics of the European environment.

Respected commentator Trevor Barr tells the story behind the exponential growth of media and information technology

Restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. telecommunications firms have harmed the interests of American consumers and investors, argues J. Gregory Sidak in this convincing study. Sidak shows why these restrictions, originally intended to protect America from the perils of wireless telegraphy by foreign agents, should be repealed. Basing his analysis on legislative history, statutory and constitutional interpretation, and finance and trade theory, Sidak shows that these restrictions no longer serve their national security purpose (if they ever did). Instead they deny American consumers lower prices and more robust innovation, hamper access of American investors to foreign telecommunications markets, and unconstitutionally impinge on freedom of speech. Sidak's study encompasses the Telecommunications Act of 1996, recent global mergers such as British Telecom-MCI, and the 1997 World Trade Organization agreement to liberalize trade in telecommunications services.