"The global telecommunications infrastructure: European Community (Union) telecommunications developments"

[From the Introduction]. Information, electronics, and telecommunication technologies promise to create communications networks of greatly expanded capacity capable of moving messages across interconnected wired and wireless systems almost anywhere in the world. Such global systems will profoundly affect the economic and social life of all countries. For those countries and economic sectors with a history of significant involvement in electronics, computers, multimedia, and telecommunications, early and timely deployment of state-of-the-art infrastructure may be a matter of prime importance. Many individual countries have made or are making changes intended to accelerate movement toward an information society, in large part because they recognize that a strategic competitive edge in the world economy will likely depend increasingly upon the availability, use, and exploitation of information. A major participant in the information race is the European Union (EU), formerly the European Community. The Commission of the European Union (Commission) has launched a strong push to adopt a common strategy for the creation of a European information society driven by a European information infrastructure. This strategy is aimed at bridging individual initiatives being pursued by EU Member States. [1. Member States now in the Union include the following: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the Union on January 1, 1995.1

Indo-US FTA: Prospects for the Telecommunication Sector

Since telecommunication is one of the main drivers of economic growth and globalization, WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiations and New Age FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) have focused on liberalizing trade in this sector. The present paper analyses the possibilities of liberalizing trade in telecommunication services if India and its largest trading partner-the US-enter into a bilateral agreement. The study found that India and the US have trade complementarities in telecommunication services and that it should be a priority sector in the FTA negotiations. The study identified certain areas such as R&D related to telecommunication and broadband infrastructure where collaboration between companies of both countries would be mutually beneficial. The study found that telecommunication services have been significantly liberalized in the US FTAs-much beyond the scope of the GATS and the Reference Paper on Basic Telecommunications. While the current policy regime in India is consistent with some of the requests made by the US in its bilateral negotiations, for meeting others, the policy regime needs to be examined and, if required, reformed. The present paper suggests certain reforms which would enhance the productivity, efficiency and global competitiveness of the sector and enable the country to benefit from the bilateral liberalization.Indo-US FTA, GATS, bilateral agreements, telecommunication, services

High-resolution optical frequency dissemination on a telecommunication network with data traffic

We transferred the frequency of an ultra-stable laser over a 108 km urban fiber link comprising 22 km of optical communications network fiber simultaneously carrying Internet data traffic. The metrological signal and the digital data signal are transferred on two different frequency channels in a dense wavelength division multiplexing scheme. The metrological signal is inserted into and extracted from the communications network by using bidirectional off-the-shelf optical add-drop multiplexers. The link-induced phase noise is measured and cancelled with round-trip technique using an all-fiber-based interferometer. The compensated link shows an Allan deviation of a few 10-16 at one second and below 10-19 at 10,000 seconds. This opens the way to a wide dissemination of ultra stable optical clock signals between distant laboratories via the Internet network

Price Regulation in Telecommunications Sector and Its Implications

Telecommunication facility has been provided in most countries as a user pay public service managed, typically, through the Post, Telegraph and Telephone departments or by some government-owned monopoly. The tradition has been to regard it as a natural monopoly to be supplied by the public sector.1 This perception has changed. Telecommunication is now increasingly recognised as a prime mover of the modern day economy. It is opening to participation by the private sector. The economic benefits of telecommunications are enormous, both as a growth industry in its own right and in terms of its impact on economic development. It has a significant social role in transforming how people communicate, become informed or do business. Additionally, it is also environment-friendly because it disseminates information without shifting goods or people. The practice now in vogue is to establish a regulatory agency with a high degree of independence from both operator and government. The regulator’s task is to implement government policy, ensure performance accountability by the operators and other players in respect of economic and social policy objectives, resolve disputes between competitors, monitor changing industry conditions and advise government on developments bearing on policy. The regulatory agency acts as a buffer between telecom operators and government, helping to ensure the separation of functions. Of late governments have increasingly been pursuing the policy of privatisation, liberalisation and de-regulation of telecommunication services. Pakistan has also made an advance in this direction with the promulgation of the Pakistan Telecommunications (Reorganisation) Act 1996. The main objectives are the promotion of rapid development, modernisation and diversification of telecommunication services and protection of consumer interest. In this paper an attempt has been made to answer the question as to why there is need to regulate telecommunication. Determining reasonable prices for a monopoly public service is an important area in telecom sector.

Telecommunications reform in Malawi

In 1998 the Government of Malawi decided to reform its telecommunications sector. Although the reform was ambitious in some ways, it was modest when compared with the most ambitious reforms adopted elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two main accomplishments were splitting the incumbent fixed line monopoly, the Malawi Post and Telecommunications Corporation, into two companies-Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and Malawi Post Corporation (MPC)-and issuing two new cellular licenses to two new private entrants. In addition, the Government also established a new regulator which was separate from, but heavily dependent on, the Ministry of Information and liberalized entry in value-added and Internet services. However, the Government had neither privatized the fixed-line telecommunications operator nor introduced competition in fixed-line services by the end of 2002. Clarke, Gebreab, and Mgombelo discuss sector performance before reform, details of the reform, the political motivation for reform, and events in the five years following the reform. The reform yielded mixed results. Although cellular penetration and Internet use expanded dramatically following reform, prices increased, especially for cellular calls, and fixed-line penetration remains low by regional standards.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Rural Communications,Telecommunications Infrastructure,ICT Policy and Strategies,Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Rural Communications,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy,Public Sector Economics&Finance

International economic law and the digital divide : a new silk road?

PhDThe failure of the trade negotiations at Seattle, and the collapse of the negotiations at Doha have bought increased attention to the issue of development, aid, and the implementation of special and differential rights in favour of developing countries. This thesis looks to examine one aspect of the many issues facing developed and developing countries in the negotiations that lie ahead, specifically how international economic law can be used in the application of technological processes to help address the Digital Divide. At present, there is an emphasis on development and the needs of developing countries, and that such development needs to be sustainable. Research reviewed in Chapter 2 indicates that growing information technology levels leads to growth of GDP. Importantly the use of ICT‘s will foster growth in the trade of electronic goods and services (electronic intangibles). By making positive attempts to reduce the Digital Divide, DCs and LDCs will be in a better position to access the necessary ICTs required to help grow GDP and facilitate sustainable development. The thesis sets out various measures to help reduce the digital divide and founded in international economic law. Central to the thesis is a new Layering Theory that the Author argues will assist operators (both incumbents and Independent Service Providers) in the developing world to gain access to international backbone Internet networks at cost price, one of the main impediments to reducing the international digital divide. The Layering Theory sets out a procedure for accurately identifying the relevant market for providers of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) and services so that those operators who abuse their dominance by refusing to supply an interconnection service or access to a digital network can be compelled to interconnect their networks to those smaller domestic or third country Internet Service Providers (ISP) operators who require access. By gaining access/interconnection in this way, operators in DCs and LDCs will be in a much better position to take advantage of cheaper production costs to export electronic intangibles overseas. Also, the thesis sets out recommendations for reform of international telecommunications, new provisions on technology transfer to help DCs and LDCs access the ICTs needed to address the Digital Divide, including provisions on technology transfer found in the increasing take-up of bilateral and regional trade agreements—and if there is to be free trade in e-commerce—recommendations for reform of current WTO rules on the classification of electronic goods and services. However, the thesis also argues that the digital divide cannot be addressed without strengthening the human capital base in developing and least developed countries, and that this cannot happen without such states also giving greater effect to the enforcement of civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights ―at home‖. The thesis asks whether it is possible to define a relationship in IEL between civil and political, and economic social and cultural rights as a collective for example in the form of the much debated and somewhat controversial Right to Development (the ―RTD‖ as defined in this thesis) on the one hand, with economic indicators, such Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the other? And if so, how the RTD can be operationalise

VoIP under the EU regulatory framework : preventing foreclosure?

In June 2004, the European Commission (EC) issued an "Information and Consultation Document" (European Commission 2004) that discussed how the Regulatory Framework of the European Union (EU) should be adapted to accommodate Voice over IP (VoIP) and invited relevant parties to comment on the Consultation Document. In our study, we use the responses of the different market parties to identify how incumbents seek to foreclose the market for VoIP telephony. From these responses we conclude that foreclosure is not only attempted by setting high prices for the use of infrastructure, but also by the strategic choice of infrastructure technology, which raises the cost of entry. We label the latter form of foreclosure "technological foreclosure" – as opposed to "market foreclosure". A simple modeling exercise shows that regulators seeking to avoid market foreclosure might trigger technological foreclosure. We argue that this has happened with the unbundling of the local loop in the EU, and that it might happen again with the transition to VoIP. We conclude that the current rights and obligations assigned to telecom companies effectively protect incumbents from competition by VoIP entrants. Moreover, the inaction of regulatory authorities when it comes to numbering and communication protocols is advantageous for incumbents and might obstruct the provision of new services in the future