An econometric approach for evaluating the linkages between broadband and knowledge intensive firms

In addition to highlighting improvements in the availability and speed of broadband as a national priority, the National Broadband Plan also includes several recommendations for improving access and use of broadband by small businesses. The plan also recommends economic development officials include broadband in their local development strategies. While these are certainly import goals, more research is needed to evaluate how broadband impacts the regional business environment, and regional capacity to retain and attract businesses in particular industries. In order to further our understanding about the linkages between broadband and businesses, and the ability of places to retain and attract businesses in particular industries, this study will develop and estimate econometric models to better understand the linkages between broadband and firms in the knowledge intensive sector. Specifically, 54 metropolitan area specific models will be developed to examine regional variations in the linkages between broadband and firms in the knowledge intensive sector in 2004. Model results highlight the importance of broadband to knowledge firms in all but five metropolitan areas across the U.S. They also reveal variations in the impact of broadband on knowledge firm presence related to metropolitan area size and industrial legacy.     

Broadband and universal service

Section 254(b)(3) of the 1996 Telecommunications Act established the objective that residents of rural areas should have access to advanced telecommunications and information services comparable to services in urban areas. Pursuant to the passage of the Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a new universal fund that provides explicit support to high-cost rural areas. This paper addresses the question of whether people in rural areas have similar access due to the support provided through the Commission's new high-cost fund. This paper focuses on the telephone platform because cable companies often do not serve rural areas due to the high cost of service, and because there is no mechanism for the federal or state government to subsidize the provision of advanced telecommunications services via cable. The Act's objectives are apparently not being met in rural areas served by large companies since people living in these areas are much less likely to have qualified lines that could be used to access advanced telecommunications services. On the other hand, small companies are much closer to satisfying the statutory requirement as a result of the implicit support received through cost sharing.     

Institutional endowment as foundation for regulatory performance and regime transitions: the role of the US constitution in telecommunications regulation in the United States

Recent research demonstrates the importance of what Spiller and Levy (1994, 1996) call a nation's institutional endowment to the efficacy of regulatory policies. We examine various roles of the US Constitution as an enabler of regulatory governance institutions that shape policies towards telecommunications industries, and constrain efforts to change those policies. Constitutional clauses designed to serve important noneconomic societal goals do so by limiting the discretion and efficacy of government bodies. This limits the extent to which regulatory policies may be used to promote economic efficiency. However, these constitutional constraints may also promote long-term efficiency goals by making regulatory commitments more credible.     

Telecommunications infrastructure facilitating sustainable development of rural and remote communities in Northern Australia

Telecommunications access in the rural and remote areas of Australia has come under considerable scrutiny in recent years. In the past decade, various Federal Government reports and inquiries have citied inadequate infrastructure, lack of service provision, the high cost of access and “thin” markets as key impediments. Whilst these difficulties are not restricted to rural and remote Australia, they tend to impact disproportionately on regional communities, notably in education and health service provision. Particularly at risk are the indigenous communities in rural and remote regions of Australia.In this paper telecommunications infrastructure is perceived as the lynch-pin for achieving sustainable economic and social development. It is suggested that without appropriate development of information infrastructure, the disparities already experienced by rural and remote communities will be further exacerbated as the reliance of goods and services over computer-mediated networks increases.The paper offers a new paradigm that will assist in maintaining a competitive telecommunications environment and facilitate the sustainable social and economic development of rural and remote communities.     

Regional structure and telecommunications planning

The general role of telecommunications in economic development has been recognized, but there remain some important specific issues in matching telecommunications planning to development goals. The author suggests a new approach, based on models relating regional structure to telecommunications demand. Data, which are readily available, on populations in places and rural areas within a region are used to derive a regional structure composed of places and the links between them. These links are found to be very closely related to telecommunications demand. This article suggests that telecommunications and development planners in the Third World should pay particular attention to ensuring that all the links between places in a region are served, and that the models presented here could form the basis for suitable planning criteria.     

Competition and performance in the UK telecommunications industry

Judging by historical and crossnational experience, privatization of British Telecom promises to increase the rate of expansion of telecommunications usage, but also to redistribute services and charges. Public dissatisfaction with these reallocations could recreate the political discord that stunted the early growth of the British telecommunications manufacturing sector, unless the new technology and regulatory institutions substantially alter the economic environment. More intense competition. rather than prospective changes of network ownership, seem to have improved the seem to have improved the manufacturing industry's performance in recent years.     

US telecommunications regulation: Will technology decide?

Twenty years ago, the telecommunications industry was an established regulated monopoly. But improvements in technology and reductions in costs have ripped apart the premises of natural monopoly and the economic rationale for public utility regulation. The authors review past US telecommunications policy and question the assumptions of the current search for a policy for the future. They believe that, for the industry to develop, institutions and restraints need to be removed.     

Take your partners: Public private interplay in Australian and New Zealand plans for next generation broadband

Within a few days of each other in early 2009, the national governments of Australia and New Zealand announced separate plans to invest heavily in advanced broadband networks. Taxpayers in each country will contribute at least half the estimated cost of fibre-to-the-premises networks reaching the overwhelming majority of households and businesses within 8–10 years. These complex and controversial forms of ‘public private interplay’ demonstrate three trends: a shift away from the liberalization and privatization policy consensus of the last two decades; shared convictions about the anticipated size of fast broadband’s economic and social benefits, and about the need for wholesale-only fixed line network operation to maximize those benefits; and the unlikely impact of the global financial and economic crisis in stimulating investment in particular infrastructures seen as critical to the national economies that emerge from it. This article discusses industry structures and regulation in Australia and New Zealand, their long history of public investment in telecommunications and the recent popularity of public private partnerships (PPPs) with Australian state governments. It outlines the ambitious broadband plans and surveys their prospects. Like so many other policy actions following the global economic crisis, these are distinctively national responses to internationally shared challenges.     

Who replies to consultations,and what do they say? The case of broadband universal service in the UK

Over the last decade or so, access to broadband services has become increasingly important. While many in the UK already benefit from the provision of broadband, some, especially those located in more rural and remote areas, do not – they may not be able to access the Internet and when they do, their connection and consumer experience may be poor. After trying to resolve this through a stream of different initiatives, the UK government announced a broadband universal service obligation (USO) of 10 Mbps in late 2015. Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, launched a consultation in April 2016 and sought the views of interested parties. The consultation attracted considerable interest, but after the submissions from orchestrated campaigns are discounted just over 100 responses remain. But who contributed and what did they say? To explore these two questions, this paper adopts a qualitative approach, using NVIVO, to analyse the responses to the consultation. We show that contributions were highly diverse, reflecting both the complexity of the issue as well as its politicised nature. A lack of agreement among the responses is revealed and divergent views on key issues like the appropriateness of 10 Mbps, whether this should change, how it should be funded or what technologies should be used exist. In this paper, we provide a critical discussion of and derive implications for the broadband USO. We tentatively conclude that those in rural and remote areas that the USO intends to help are caught between two countervailing forces – speed and cost deployment – that interact to ensure that whatever resolution to provide broadband access, some will likely be unhappy.     

A study on forward and backward linkage effects in South Korea's telecom industry across generations

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the spillover effect of South Korea's telecom industry on other industries until its evolution to the 4th generation. By using Input-Output Table Data to compute Forward and Backward Linkage Effects in South Korea's telecom industry throughout Generational Changes, this study aims to analyze South Korea's telecom industry's impacts and changes on upstream and downstream industries to offer implications for its evolution to the 5th generation. This study used empirical input-output data for the period between the years 2000–2014 to conduct input-output analysis to evaluate forward and backward linkages in South Korea's telecom industry for each generation of it. The results revealed that (1) Korea's telecom industry can be defined as a dependent manufacturing industry due to its below-average forward linkage and above-average backward linkage over the whole study period, and (2) backward linkage in South Korea's telecom industry was higher than the economy-wide average value during our study period although it decreased with the industry's generational shifts. The results indicate that telecommunications companies should create new markets in which they can propagate emerging technologies of the 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution) to other industries, in order to ensure that the 5th generation telecom industry maintain its position as a key industry. On the other hand, the government should make policies to support start-ups and SMEs in telecom industry and implement structural reforms in Korea's oligopolistic telecom market.     

Rural internet connectivity

This research investigates Internet connectivity in rural regions, looking specifically at four states in the US. Access to the Internet has assumed new significance for commercial and political reasons, and remote and sparsely populated areas typically lack the telecommunications infrastructure for reliable and fast Internet connections. Even as government programs such as the federal E-rate provisions bring Internet connectivity for institutions such as schools and libraries under the government's universal service umbrella, more general Internet access to a broader community constituency has not been addressed within policy circles. Even the deployment of so-called “national” Internet services favors urban regions.Research associates Kyle Nicholas and Lisa Parker were instrumental in undertaking this research, as was financial support from Southwestern Bell and the Rural Policy Institute. The comments of an anonymous reviewer helped greatly.     

Regional aid for telecommunications in Europe: A force for economic development

This article reviews research work on telecommunications and economic development which can be applied to the problems faced in the less favoured regions of Europe. The authors draw on work carried out under the auspices of the Commission of the European Communities into the disadvantages these regions face in telecommunications supply and use, and the benefits which would accrue from investment. The priorities for regional aid and recommended actions for a European programme are also discussed. The authors conclude that the emphasis should be on the provision of advanced business services and the stimulation of demand for those services, in order to encourage economic growth. General network infrastructure digitalization should be left to PTTs to undertake as part of their normal investment programme.     

中国高端制造业空间结构变动的实证研究:2003～2009

当前各地发展战略性新兴产业出现了一哄而上的低水平发展现象,因此亟需规划各个战略性新兴产业的空间布局.产业空间结构现状及变动趋势可以为产业布局决策提供现实依据.高端制造业是战略性新兴产业的重要部分,本文利用修正后的E-G指数实证研究了其在2003～2009年的空间结构变动.结果显示:高端制造业集聚空间结构呈现出聚集和扩散两者并存的特性.东部沿海地区是高端制造业的主要集聚地,中西部地区的河南、河北、湖北和四川成为产业扩散的主要承接地.本文认为战略性新兴产业的空间布局要体现出“适度集聚”和“因地制宜”的特征.     

Competition and Long–run Productivity Growth in the UK and US Tobacco Industries, 1879–1939

The UK and US tobacco industries provide a particularly clean place to examine the impact of changes in market structure on firm conduct and productivity in a rapidly innovating industry. Although each industry had roughly equal access to new manufacturing technologies, the industries were monopolized at different times. The US lost an early productivity lead after the formation of the Tobacco Trust in 1890, but regained it after the UK industry merged to monopoly in 1902 and the Trust was broken up in 1911. Supplementary evidence suggests that technological innovation and consolidation of production were more rapid during competitive periods.     

Korean telecom policy in global competition: implications for developing countries

United States efforts to open the Korean telecommunications market have been incessant and tenacious, to the extent that Korea is the only country to be twice designated by the US as a priority foreign country (PFC). Through major restructuring driven by the Korean government, the telecommunications infrastructure of Korea has been strengthened and expanded, and in the process has posed a threat to the US telecommunications industry. Thus, since the late 1980s, the Korean telecommunications industry has been monitored and threatened with trade sanctions by the United States Trade Representative, and all internal restructuring has been closely related to bilateral negotiations with the US, and multilateral negotiations in the Uruguay Round. Based on interviews with key Korean telecommunications personnel and analyses of public documents, this research examines the Korean telecommunications market, telecommunications policies relative to the US and WTO, and the recent economic crisis that has affected the stability of the industry. The paper also offers five major recommendations to government and industry policymakers, including a more active and positive stance toward liberalisation, the relinquishing by bureaucrats of their monopolistic power over policymaking, the securing of an open and transparent policymaking process, and, in relations with the US, and the mobilisation of regional and multilateral organisations to ensure fair competition in telecommunications.     

Impacts of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on the US model of telecommunications policy

The 1996 Telecommunications Act provides mechanisms for all parties to pursue their interests. For instance, the Act incorporates two different and complementary approaches: (a) it authorizes all operators to operate in businesses from which they were previously excluded. (b) it incorporates some legal procedures and regulatory constraints, that provide parties with tools to defend their territories, excluding other operators. A striking example is the ‘competitive checklist’ for RBOCs to enter the interLATA long distance market.The undesired result of this approach is both the creation of enormous business opportunities for lawyers and a stalemate, because all parties have been quite successful in adopting defensive strategies to block others’ initiatives. This has happened to the detriment of offensive moves that, as everyone hoped, would have increased competition in all markets and, as a consequence, the availability of innovative high quality services for the public at low prices.Analysis of the US regulatory model in the telecommunications sector, and in particular the specific studies carried out in three States, have led to a series of conclusions that can provide guidelines on the type of issues and some possible solutions with regard to telecommunications liberalization, relationships between different levels of regulation (e.g. federal/State), operator’ strategic moves in response to regulation. The analysis of the US model, even though it is very much related to country-specific conditions, allows us to isolate some issues that other countries, and among them Italy, will be likely to face in the short term.     

Strategic focus of incumbents in the European telecommunications industry: The cases of BT,Deutsche Telekom and KPN

This study investigates the internal and external strategic choices that telecommunications firms, operating in a dynamic network environment, make to adapt to changes and to respond quickly in order to create or to sustain their competitive advantage. In particular, in the European telecommunications industry incumbent firms have faced important challenges from new technologies, liberalization and the convergence of markets. The leading European telecommunications companies initially focused on new markets and new businesses, emphasizing their plans to become major players in relevant markets. However, after the telecommunications euphoria companies were more restrained due to their huge burden of debt and their market value. Through refocusing or restructuring, these companies have tried to streamline their businesses in order to restore their value and to improve their competitiveness. Insight into the specific strategic actions of traditional telecommunications companies in Europe to the recent developments in the industry is provided from the analysis of three leading traditional telecommunications companies: BT, Deutsche Telekom and KPN.     

Competition aspects of pricing access to networks: What are the issues?

The introduction of competition between service providers in industries with some sort of network—such as telecommunications, but also gas and electricity—has created the regulatory problem of access pricing. Where a service provider requires access to a network owned by another firm, how much should that other firm be allowed to charge for access to its network? The problem arises where no agreement is forthcoming through normal market negotiations. The paper discusses the question of access pricing in telecoms, and the issues involved in actually deriving a price fixing mechanism for access to a network.     

The implications of economic efficiency for US telecommunications policy

Subsidizing local residence telecommunications service from toll services has produced large distortions in US state and interstate toll markets. While both the business and residence groups as a whole would benefit from lower toll prices and higher residence prices, the fact that toll usage is concentrated means that most residence subscribers would be made worse off. It is therefore politically difficult to implement efficient telecommunications pricing. However, this same concentration of toll usage makes it advantageous for large toll users to bypass the local network to escape the subsidy-laden carrier access charges. Such a bifurcation of the telecommunications network has the potential for making most residence subscribers even worse off than they would be under an efficiency- enhancing reduction in toll prices.     

工业化新时期新兴主导产业的选择

需求约束的强化和加入WTO后的挑战，使我国的工业化进入了一个新的时期。为了寻找新的增长空间，提供更多的就业机会，加快产业结构升级，并进一步走可持续发展道路，工业化新时期需要选择新兴主导产业。从产业的增长潜力、就业功能、带动效应、生产率上升率、技术密集度、可持续发展性以及国际比较等方面来进行分析，制造业中兼顾产业升级基本目标和就业增长重要目标的新兴主导产业是：电子及通信设备、电气机械及器材、交通运输设备、纺织和服装、普通机械和专用设备制造业。应当通过新的产业政策，促进新兴主导产业的形成和发展，提高其国际竞争力，并加强其对整个制造业发展的带动效应。