The Transformation of International Telecommunications

This article starts by identifying the key elements of the antiquated system which has ensured that prices for international telephony have stayed high even though costs have fallen sharply. It then explains why and how that system, built on bilateral relationships between telecommunications companies (telcos) which were formerly monopolies, is now being undermined. The authors conclude that international customers of telcos can look forward to massive price cuts in the near future and that this will make it possible for world-wide communications across disparate operations to expand even faster than before. The telcos themselves must face up to (i) rapidly falling profits from what has been a cash cow and (ii) the strategic dilemma of whether to hold out against change or to roll out new services to compete with new entrants and the new service options opened up by technological advance.     

Telecommunications - The Consumer Revolution

Lord Young of Graffham, Executive Chairman of Cable & Wireless plc, spoke at the third LSE Business Performance Lecture about the consumer revolution in telecommunications which has transformed the industry. Since liberalisation, the British telecommunications industry has lead its monopolised European counterparts. When Germany licensed one cellular phone operator in the mid-eighties, the British government went for competition and licensed two. Both companies seta target of 100,000 users by 1990. Germany achieved hers; Britain passed a million users. This revolution in the telecommunications industry is timely because information is the lifeblood of service industries and is also increasingly important in modern manufacturing. Imminent technological advances, like the personal communicator, the videophone, and multimedia will increasingly add to its importance.     

Ethical Dilemmas In The Global Telecommunications Revolution

A revolution is under way in telecommunications technology, and this is generating a new approach to governance in the field as well as new ethical dielmmas which are challenging the core values of the industry's traditional approach. The author served in the Canadian Department of Communications before founding his own consultancy in communications and information technology. For the past five years he has been chief of the Strategic Planning Unit of the General Secretariat of the International Telecommunication Union, Place des Nations, CH–1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.     

The Impact of Structural Reforms on Telecommunications Performance

The paper investigates to what extent regulation, competition and privatization affect Telecommunications performance for 30 OECD countries over the period 1975–2013. This study explores the difference between separate and joint effects among these structural reform variables, in the concept of a dynamic model, taking also into account the difference between short run and long run effects. We argue that regulation has a more aggressive effect on performance when it is combined with the other two structural reform variables in both models.     

The Economic Effects of Removing Barriers to Trade in Telecommunications

This paper quantifies the impact on the economies of the world of complete liberalisation of trade in a key services sector, telecommunications, using a global general equilibrium model. Barriers to trade in telecommunications are highest in developing regions and lowest in developed regions. The paper uses new estimates of these barriers for telecommunications. The results indicate that completely liberalising trade in telecommunications would benefit the world as a whole in terms of increased production by 0.1 per cent. Although the distribution of gains among regions is not even, most regions are projected to gain from liberalising trade in telecommunications. In general, the regions with the highest barriers benefit most. The analysis demonstrates that commercial presence of foreign firms via foreign direct investment is an important mode of delivering telecommunications.     

电信业入世的法律准备

我国电信条例已于日前颁行,本文从条例出台的背景、条例与世界贸易组织相关法律规范的关系、我国电信领域的对外开放承诺以及条例的完善等角度对其作了探索性的评析。     

Cross-Sector Competition in Telecommunications

Cross-sector competition in the information and communications technology sectors (ICT sectors) constitutes a key strategic challenge for telecommunications companies. Due to increasing convergence, value creation is resulting in a greater degree of interaction. The diversification potential of telecommunications businesses is therefore changing with respect to associated ICT sectors, such as hardware, software and media. The article analyses cross-sector competition in the telecommunications industry on the basis of the diversification activities of ICT companies. A concentration of competitive interdependence in the ICT sectors is demonstrated using a cluster analysis of 34,142 companies. The cross-sector activities of telecommunications companies are investigated using contingency and dependency analyses, and the diversification-related competition in the telecommunications sector is also analysed. With regard to the telecommunications sector, particularly high level cross-sector competition with the media industry is identified, as well as strong diversification activities in the software sector. The results are used to derive the potentials and risks that have a significant bearing on the structure of the cross-sector competitive environment of telecommunications companies.     

Competition in Local Telecommunications

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 created a framework for competition in local telecommunications. Under its rules and under the jurisdiction of state regulatory authorities, competitive local telephone companies were to gain access to some or all parts of the incumbent’s network through known wholesale tariffs and offer retail local telephone service. As customers Competition in Local Telecommunications adopt other technologies for communications—mobile wireless service, broadband for email, messaging, and information retrieval—additional competitive pressures are put on the core voice telephone market. The substitution of usage and access from local telephony to other modes of communication is regarded as intermodal competition and is the subject of this paper. This study concerns local telecommunications competition between incumbent and competitive service providers in the United States. In addition to measuring competition from within the wireline market, we find significant intermodal competitive impacts resulting from wireless and high-speed development. We report empirical results from an econometric model that measures line loss impacts between carriers and the effects of wireless and high-speed services on the wireline market. The paper offers interpretation of the strategic and policy implications of these results.JEL Classification L120,L400,L960     

外资对我国电信产业的冲击及对策

近几年,电信产业虽然增长迅猛,但由于人为的进入壁垒造成长期垄断,致使效率低下,竞争力不强。我国已经入世,外资必定会大举进入我国电信服务市场,给我国电信产业带来巨大冲击。要想减轻外资的冲击,应采取相应措施,如建立完善电信保障体系,加强电信立法,扩大电信准入和有效竞争,制造对电信产品的需求等。     

艾滋病的未来：蓄势待发的风暴

本文译自“The Future of AIDS:Grim Toll in Russia,China,and India",作者为Nicholas Eberstadt,原载于美国刊物《外交》2 0 0 0年第 11月 /12月号 ,FOREIGN AFFAIRS,November/December,2 0 0 2 ,.考虑到非专业人士的阅读需要 ,本译文对原文的部分内容作了删节。有需要阅读原文者 ,可参见网址 :www.aei.org/scholars/eberstadr.htm.     

The Future of Retailing

Retailers have embraced a variety of technologies to engage their customers. This article focuses on “The Future of Retailing” by highlighting five key areas that are moving the field forward: (1) technology and tools to facilitate decision making, (2) visual display and merchandise offer decisions, (3) consumption and engagement, (4) big data collection and usage, and (5) analytics and profitability. We also suggest numerous issues that are deserving of additional inquiry, as well as introduce important areas of emerging applicability: the internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robots, drones, and driverless vehicles.     

The Liberalisation of Telecommunications in the EU: Managing the Transition

This second article in our two-part feature on the inaugural report of a programme to monitor the progress of European deregulation summarises the report's policy recommendations. The programme is designed to be a "report card" on the process of liberalisation, starting here with telecommunications where new technology is leading to dramatic changes in the basic economics of the industry.     

艾滋病的未来:蓄势待发的风暴

1日渐逼近的灾难 目前,从全球看,艾滋病人和病毒携带者中的绝大多数仍然集中在撒哈拉以南非洲地区.     

Consumer Response to Telecommunications Deregulation: The Equal Access Decision

This paper examines consumer response to equal access-the choice of a primary long-distance carrier. A model is developed that suggests that those consumers who seek information to aid in decision making may acquire it either through search or experience. The paper reports results of a survey of consumers who recently made the equal access decision. Logit analysis identified search in other purchase decisions and age as two characteristics significantly related to the extent of prepurchase search.     

Telecommunications in the Uruguay Round

Within the Uruguay Round, the “Group of Negotiations on Trade in Services” deals with the formation of a multilateral framework of principles and rules for the “progressive liberalization” of trade in services. Telecommunications is of high priority in the framework preparations, both as a delivery vehicle for information-intensive services and as a service industry itself. This article attempts to clarify possible economic and developmental opportunities for LDCs which could emerge from the Uruguay negotiations regarding telecommunications and information-intensive services. It contains an up-to-date analysis of the present results of the Uruguay Round and offers an outlook on the consequences of the negotiations.     

Telecommunications Technologies Assist Services Marketing

No abstract available for this article.     

China's Post and Telecommunications Service

In 1994, the handling capacity and business volume of China's posts and telecommunications fulfilled the target of the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-1995) a year ahead of schedule and that of quadrupling the business volume during the period of 1980-2000 six years in advance. 1. The comprehensive communications capacity further enhanced with the construction of the telecommunication mains transmission network mainly composed of optical fibre cables is now in place. Seven first-grade     

Telecommunications Policy Reform in Turkey

This paper, considering the economic effects of liberalisation in the telecommunications sector on the Turkish economy, makes use of the empirical studies on the linkages between regulatory regimes and telecommunications prices. Since Turkey is trying to liberalise the telecommunications sector by following the EU approach to liberalisation, the paper considers briefly the regulatory regimes in the telecommunications sectors of the EU and Turkey, determines the ad valorem equivalent of barriers to the telecommunications services sector in Turkey, and derives estimates of the welfare effects of adopting the EU rules and regulations in the Turkish telecommunications sector. It shows that there is tremendous scope for Turkey to benefit from adopting and implementing the legislative, regulatory and institutional framework of the EU telecommunications sector.