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.

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.

Few would doubt the potential of information technology to connect individuals, firms and organisations. Whether this will actually lead to the integration of markets and societies is a different issue. The articles collected in this book shed light on crucial considerations for the success of global communication networks. These include frameworks for regulation, inclusion of customers in defining product and service strategies, access to advanced technology and networks for all groups, and more.

This study analyzes the Korean path of telecommunications market liberalization. An analysis of the Korean mobile market liberalization reveals that international and technological changes had significant impacts on the decision to liberalize the telecom market and on state-industry relationships. Changes in the international market, prompted by the United States' telecom liberalization initiative and the GATT/WTO regime, and technological revolution in the telecom, forced the Korean government to embrace the rule of market liberalization. This required fundamental reforms in the domestic telecommunications system, so that the country could secure an international competitiveness that the old state monopoly would no longer provide.

This book shows the surprising ways in which globalization has led to the spread of liberal reforms in the telecommunications sector around the world. This book argues that international organizations, rather than just markets, structure this diffusion of policy innovation by providing information, sharing policy standards, and developing regulatory networks. The book aims to disaggregate the concept of globalization using econometric analysis and controlled case comparisons, and shows how governments play a critical role in allowing the spread of exciting new technologies and access to the broader world.

Scientific Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Essen, course: VWL, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the regulation of natural monopolies by the government. In general, regulation pursues the goal to guarantee equal opportunities within a market and to sustainably encourage competitive markets to the advantage of the consumer by affecting the conduct of the monopolist. A natural monopoly arises when a single firm is able to supply a good or service to an entire market at a lower cost than two or more firms. This failure of competition is the result of a specific market, in which variety of suppliers causes a decline of market output. For example this could happen when there are extremely high fixed costs, such as large-scale infrastructure needed to ensure supply (like cables and conductions regarding the telecommunications sector) and it is more efficient to only allow one firm to supply to the market. Allowing other firms entering the market would mean they had to duplicate all the fixed costs, which in turn states that competition would lead to inefficient duplication of resources. Usually, government intervention is necessary within natural monopolies, because in that case the existence of a monopoly is beneficial and efficient or even unavoidable, but negative effects, which could be a result of the position, need to be avoided. In a first step, this paper will refer to these negative effects, which can arise from a naturally monopolistic situation and lead to economic issues. Hence, you can conclude why natural monopolies need to get regulated. Subsequently, this paper will outline methods how to regulate a market, but due to the fact that there are many different opportunities, this paper will only refer to a few examples to give a small insight. In a final step, the paper will give an example of a current regulation system in Germany. In this case the regulation system will be the telecommunications sector. On the basis of this sector, it will be demonstrated if its regulation was successful and how the government tried to regulate the market.

Few would doubt the potential of information technology to connect individuals, firms and organisations. Whether this will actually lead to the integration of markets and societies is a different issue. The articles collected in this book shed light on crucial considerations for the success of global communication networks. These include frameworks for regulation, inclusion of customers in defining product and service strategies, access to advanced technology and networks for all groups, and more.