Telecommunications/ transportation substitution and energy conservation Part 2

Part 1 of this article reviewed existing research both on attitudes toward telecommunications substitution for travel and on operational experiments with teleconferencing and telecommuting. Part 2 examines major factors influencing substitution, including government policy. It concludes that government policy can significantly facilitate telecommunications substitution for travel and, indeed, the achievement of any real measure of substitution may depend upon proactive government policy. However, this is an unlikely prospect in the current US national policy environment.     

The effects of international telecommunication investment: Wireline and wireless technologies, 1993–1998

In the 1990s, nations in the world from Singapore and Egypt to France and the United States poured billions of dollars into investments in information and telecommunication technologies. This article examines the effects of telecommunications investments from 1993 to 1998 using a model, which suggests that a delay in learning and adjustment is realized before the benefit and that it is (1) the transfer of information and knowledge and (2) the experience with telecommunications technology that contribute to economic performance of a nation. The research addresses the use of both traditional wireline and emerging wireless telecommunications and a nation's investments in telecommunications. The article concludes with a discussion of the results as well as the implications of the proposed learning model.     

Telecommunications and energy policy

As the energy problems of the West continue, an increasing amount of attention is focused on methods of energy conservation. The authors develop an ‘activist’ view of the role of telecommunications as a component of energy-conservation policy. Advanced telecommunications offer an alternative to many forms of travel. The results of research aimed at quantifying and comparing the direct energy consumption of travel and telecommunications are presented. Telecommunications developments can induce changes in business organisation, transport, urban development, and environmental quality, as well as increased freedom of location. The authors consider whether such changes are feasible and desirable.     

Accounting rates in the Caribbean: Finding a balance

This Comment examines the issue of telecommunications accounting rates in order to gain an understanding of the current relationship between the USA and the Caribbean nations. The initiative taken by the Federal Communications Commission on this issue will either increase the region's dependency status or protect US telecommunications carriers that handle Caribbean traffic. The present status of FCC accounting rate policy is restrained. This works in favor of Caribbean nations. If the USA and the nations of the Caribbean work together a more reasonable accounting rate will result for both.     

Telecommunications policy and individuals with disabilities: Issues of accessibility and social inclusion in the policy and research agenda

Information and communications technologies have become an integral part of life in an information society, affecting employment, education and many other daily activities. For individuals with disabilities, equal access to telecommunications remains a concern, as many technologies that are developed do not allow for equal access. Law and policy have made significant progress in some nations, but sizeable barriers remain to the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities in telecommunications technologies and services. This paper examines the importance of equal access to telecommunications for individuals with disabilities in both the formulation and the implementation of policy. Analyzing issues of policy and implementation, this paper discusses policy questions and potential areas of research to better understand the relationship of telecommunications policy to access for persons with disabilities.     

Telecommunications in the developing world : Investment decision and performance monitoring

The contention that there is significant underinvestment in telecommunications services in developing nations is supported by cross country data. The accepted approach to determining whether investment should take place involves: identifying unsatisfied demand; determining the least cost solution; and assessing whether benefits will exceed costs. The author draws upon the experience of World Bank involvement in telecommunications projects in developing nations and concludes that the trend in some developing countries toward increased investment in the sector will continue, furthering the goals of increased economic efficiency and improved social equity.     

Telecommunications development in Asia-Pacific : The case for a new Australian role

This article describes the role of Australia in economic cooperation and telecommunications development in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Asia. Australia's economic imperative focuses on north-east Asia while targeting markets for telecommunications in the relatively poorer nations of south-east Asia. A new role is advocated for Australia to take the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum it instigated beyond the purpose of economic cooperation directly into the cultural and human realm. Australia is challenged to use the new communications technologies to facilitate an active, shared learning process which could move Asia-Pacific into a new global order. A case is put for research on the use and impacts of the new telecommunications technologies in the service of humankind.     

Attitudes to intercity travel substitution

Potential intercity travel reduction by the substitution of teleconferencing is examined by analysing studies of business travellers' attitudes towards teleconferencing and the experience of organizations with operational teleconferencing systems. Important findings are cited, but neither the attitudes nor operational experience indicate a trend towards a travel reduction. It seems that teleconferencing first needs to be used as a supplemental form of communication before being accepted as a viable substitution for intercity business travel.     

Global political economy of technology standardization: A case of the Korean mobile telecommunications market

This paper examines empirical cases of standardization in the Korean mobile market as vehicles for approaching the broader political and institutional context of standardization in telecommunications. A consideration of Korean standardization in the mobile telecommunications market is particularly interesting because it reveals how the state's political interests influence standards decisions, which are primarily driven by market and technological changes in telecommunications. Judged from the social construction of technology perspective which sheds light not only on technology itself but also on political, social and economic interests that surround transformations in technology, this paper highlights power relations among the major actors that have made technology standards decisions in Korea regarding second (2G) and third-generation (3G) mobile telephony. The paper also attempts to show how the Korean government has dealt with the diverse interests of various market actors while pursuing its own policy agenda.     

Trade patterns,industry structure and industrial policy in telecommunications

This article examines three major changes which have been occuring in the telecommunications market: liberalization, leading to increased competition in services and equipment, the internationalization of the equipment market, and a rapidly changing industrial structure. The interrelationship among the three trends is analyzed, and the authors hypothesize that it is the technological determinants which are driving the changing structure of the industry and its trade patterns and regulatory environment. The instruments of industrial policy are discussed, with examples from several countries. The European Community's policy in telecommunications is explained in some detail.     

Can information and communication technologies be pro-poor?

There is over 20 years of accumulated cross-country evidence on the link between telecommunications provision and economic growth. Looking at micro-studies from a range of countries including Bangladesh, Botswana and Zimbabwe, there is also some evidence that provision of telephony has a dramatic effect on the income and quality of life of the rural poor. This paper examines cross-country evidence to discover if teledensity (the number of telephones per capita) has a pro-poor growth impact—fostering increased average incomes while reducing inequality. It also examines the impact of telecommunications rollout on quality of life variables including infant mortality and literacy. It finds that, historically, telecommunications rollout has had a positive and significant impact on increasing inequality and little impact on quality of life variables. A reason for this is tested and preliminarily confirmed that rollout has (historically) only benefited the wealthy. The paper will then turn to emerging evidence on the role of the Internet in poverty relief and statistics on the access gap in provision between rich and poor, suggesting that this new ICT will also be a force for income divergence. Using the results of the cross-country analysis on telecommunications, the paper will conclude with a discussion of potential policy responses (such as sector reform and universal access programs) to turn telecommunications from a source of growth that also increases inequality to a source of growth that diminishes it.     

On the determinants of non-market strategy: The separations mechanism and cost shifting in the telecommunications industry

This study examines the relationship between performance levels and the levels of cross-subsidy attained by local exchange carriers in the United States telecommunications industry. These cross-subsidies have been obtained by firms via their engagement in a separations mechanism, based on a cost allocation process, which telecommunications sector regulatory authorities use. Non-market strategies have assumed primacy in the activities of several sectors world-wide. Thus, understanding non-market strategic choices is important in the analysis of firms’ behavior and performance. Active engagement in the separations process is an important non-market strategy in the telecommunications industry, as a firm relatively successful in this activity can gain large cross-subsidies. The analysis establishes that less profitable firms obtain greater cross-subsidies. Once the profitability variable is decomposed into its two main components, which are productivity and price recovery, the impact of the profitability variable reduces. Firms which are relatively unproductive, as well as those unable to recover higher output prices, obtain relatively greater cross-subsidies. These results are inconsistent with the postulates of the strategic cost-allocation and behavior literatures but are consistent with x-inefficiency and rent-seeking perspectives of firms’ strategic actions.     

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.     

Telecommunications and investment decisions in the Philippines

This article is a rejoinder to the article written by R.J. Saunders published in the December 1983 issue of Telecommunications Policy on investment decisions in telecommunications. The author, in this brief paper, attemps to discuss the decision-making process in telecommunications investments described by Saunders and as it relates to the practical experience of the Philippines and other developing countries in a similar situation. Attention is given to how the national telephone programme in the Philippines is being developed. Efforts have been exerted to identify the similarities and basic differences of the Philippines to other developing countries.     

Investigation of factors affecting the diffusion of mobile telephone services: An empirical analysis for Vietnam

This paper analyzes the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services in Vietnam and examines how telecommunications regulation and potential substitute/complement services affect the growth of the number of mobile telephone subscribers. Using a logistic diffusion model, it is found that fixed telephone services are a complement while data services have a negative relation to mobile telephone services in Vietnam. As for regulation, the policy of introducing competition has been found to be the most effective in influencing the adoption of mobile services. Another important result is that the estimated potential market is roughly 76% of the total population. The findings suggest that suitable regulation that guarantees competition in the mobile telecommunications market in a developing country such as Vietnam is one of the most important factors for a positive diffusion process.     

Regulation and transaction costs in telecommunications: A research agenda

Antitrust and regulatory policies influence the vertical and horizontal integration of firms and the characteristics of their contractual arrangements. This paper examines the relevance of transaction cost economics for the analysis of regulatory policy in telecommunications. It explores the impact of changes in national telecommunications regulation on the level of transaction costs. After building a new theoretical framework based upon previous transaction cost contributions, the paper sets out a research agenda concerning the importance of transaction costs for antitrust and regulatory policies.     

Community response grids: E-government, social networks, and effective emergency management

This paper explores the concept of developing community response grids (CRGs) for community emergency response and the policy implications of such a system. CRGs make use of the Internet and mobile communication devices, allowing residents and responders to share information, communicate, and coordinate activities in response to a major disaster. This paper explores the viability of using mobile communication technologies and the Web, including e-government, to develop response systems that would aid communities before, during, and after a major disaster, providing channels for contacting residents and responders, uploading information, distributing information, coordinating the responses of social networks, and facilitating resident-to-resident assistance. Drawing upon research from computer science, information studies, public policy, emergency management, and several other disciplines, the paper elaborates on the concept of and need for CRGs, examines related current efforts that can inform the development of CRGs, discusses how research about community networks can be used to instill trust and social capital in CRGs, and examines the issues of public policy, telecommunications, and e-government related to such a system.     

Telecommunications infrastructure competition: The costs of delay

This paper examines the experience of the USA, the UK and other OECD countries that introduced infrastructure competition, principally for long-distance telephone service, during the 1980s. The results show that competition has generally brought lower prices, greater variety of service, faster innovation, higher usage and productivity gains, and increased output both in telecommunications and in other sectors of the economy. The evidence is now convincing that the economic benefits from competition outweigh the highly visible costs and disruptions to established organizations and relations. Other countries can learn from the pioneers' experience to reduce the uncertainties and costs resulting from the transition to competition.     

Telecommunications for development: findings of the ITU-OECD project

This article presents the main findings of a major research project jointly sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The purpose of the project was to shed some light on the ways in which telecommunications contribute to economic and social development. The author also describes one approach to rural telecommunications explored by the project — the GLODOM concept.     

The evolution of the telecommunications policy agenda: Forty years of articles in Telecommunications Policy

This paper investigates the evolution of the telecommunications policy agenda by means of text mining forty years –from 1976 to 2016– of papers in the journal Telecommunications Policy. Text mining techniques help identify the key topics, the dominant combinations of concepts and the main areas of research within this multidisciplinary –technical, economic, social, policy– discipline. In addition they depict an evolution of the policy agenda more nuanced than the conventional public service, pre-competition and post-liberalisation stages typical of telecommunications. Also, in combination with bibliometric information, the results display the relationships between areas of research and methodologies, countries and authors’ background, all together providing a deeper understanding of the past, present and future avenues for research in telecommunications policy.