Building Telecom Markets

The mobile telecommunication industry has been one of the fastest growing industries in the global economy since the late 1990s. As the first country to offer commercial Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular service in the world, Korea was able to jump right into the digital mobile markets, enhancing its status as a leading manufacturer of mobile equipment. While the growth of the telecom industry occurred with the emergence of worldwide market-oriented regulatory reform and liberalization in telecommunications, the state-market relationship in Korea evolved from state monopoly toward “centralized governance” and later toward “flexible governance,” which is substantially different from “liberal governance” of the US. This book examines the uniqueness of Korean regulatory reforms of the mobile telecommunication sector, and argues that the market-oriented regulatory reform and liberalization should be explained by focusing on the interactions among the state, the private sector, and international political economic environment. It will appeal to scholars and policy-makers alike concerned with market regulation, Asian development and political economy.

The field of telecommunications is becoming ever more complex. In order to manage the new Telecom industry it is necessary not only to understand its 3 main components, namely the end users, the technology and networks, and the business aspects, but also their vital inter-relationships. Complexity leads to uncertainty, and one effect of uncertainty is for people to underestimate the complexity of the business and the technology. This book takes a holistic approach to the subject and can be used as a tool for decreasing this uncertainty. During 2000 many operators paid extremely high sums of money for 3G licenses in a number of European countries, supposing a potential corresponding and balancing revenue from mobile services in the new frequency band. Obviously today the licenses are questionable. Consequently, suppliers and operators were forced to reduce their international work force. What are the underlying reasons? Since the true rate and level of development was hardly foreseen by anyone, the picture is complex, including factors such as psychology and belief in a new economy. It is immediately clear that the end user impact has been severely under-estimated. It is also clear that the expected development has and is happening, with more speed than expected, and continues to be complemented with solutions such as wireless LANs. This book treats the paradigm shift from a number of angles: user needs and demands, deregulation of telecom and the convergence between telecommunications, data communications and the media industry, the service plan, service implementation, QoS, and Security. Understanding Changing Telecommunications focuses on the overall principles and context of the new telecommunications world rather than on high-level technical descriptions in order to aid the understanding and development of the next generation of telecom networks. e.g. multimedia over IP and 3G. Discusses the development of telecommunications up until 2005 Provides a holistic view of the world of telecommunications Covers three main areas: End-users, Technologies and Networks, and Telecom Business, and their vital inter-relationships Offers support and advice for those needing to implement business plans Essential reading for staff with operators and providers involved in the telecom networks, especially management, planning and design, development, integration and training, as well as Business analysts and investors keen to understand the current state of the Telecom industry.

This book provides a critical comprehensive summary of the coevolution of telecom markets, rules and public institutions over the last 25 years, focusing on the challenges that regulators and policy makers have been facing. Even if the perspective of the book is European (as the EU regulatory framework is examined), most of the economic and institutional issues addressed are common to all telecom markets in advanced economies. The book addresses some traditional fundamental topics in the telecom regulation literature, as well as some hot-button topics in the current policy debate, e.g., ultrafast broadband and 5G networks, the relationship between investments and competition, the sector digitalisation and the role of OTTs. All these are relevant to students, researchers, and policy makers interested to get a sound understanding of the sector, its many dimensions and coevolutionary patterns.

This book analyses telecommunications markets from early to mature competition, filling the gap between the existing economic literature on competition and the real-life application of theory to policy. Paul De Bijl and Martin Peitz focus on both the transitory and the persistent asymmetries between telephone companies, investigating the extent to which access price and retail price regulation stimulate both short- and long-term competition. They explore and compare various settings, such as non-linear versus linear pricing, facilities-based versus unbundling-based or carrier-select-based competition, non-segmented versus segmented markets. On the basis of their analysis, De Bijl and Peitz then formulate guidelines for policy. This book is a valuable resource for academics, regulators and telecommunications professionals. It is accompanied by simulation programs devised by the authors both to establish and to illustrate their results.

Before the 1990s, China's telecommunications sector was a lacklustre monopoly featured by poor-quality service and inadequate capacity. Today the country boasts a dynamic telecommunications industry with the world's largest communications network and user-base with over 460 million telephone subscribers. China's accession to the WTO in 2001 has opened this huge developing telecommunications market to foreign participation and investment. The authors examine the singularity of the Chinese experience in building up its extensive telecommunications network in merely a decade, by reviewing China's national industrial policies and institutional reforms within the industry. The reader will find in this volume a unique and in-depth analysis of the interplay between political and economic forces amidst the industry's structural overhaul and regulatory reforms. The accounts of industrial features and market conditions are enriched with up-to-date data, which are extremely useful for appreciating the development and prospects for this fast-growing market, set against the backdrop of China's accession to the WTO. Scholars of China or Asian studies and researchers of information-communications industry and Asian/China studies will find this work of great interest, as will governmental policymakers, both in China and beyond. For foreign business practitioners eyeing this market, this volume provides a helpful guide to understand China's various interests and public welfare considerations that motivate changes in policies towards foreign investment and participation.

In the early 1990s, China started to reform its telecommunications regime by removing barriers to foreign and private investment and encouraging competition. This text applies the "Public Choice Plus" theory (developed in the study of economics) to the analysis of the policymaking process of China's telecommunications reforms. Guan is a senior fellow at the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy at the U. of Toronto.