Mussio is a communications consultant who traces how Canada handled expansion in telecommunications and the arrival of the computer in the three critical decades following World War II. Like technological transformations in transportation and utilities, the spread of new communications systems forced governments to respond; in continental Europe and the UK, they asserted control and ownership of national telecommunication networks. In the US, private companies were permitted to manage systems and provide services. In Canada both models were adopted, and domestic hybrids combining both also flourished.Distributed in the US by Cornell University Services. c. Book News Inc.

Making a neighborhood of a nation -- Professor Morse's lightning -- Antimonopoly -- The new postalic dispensation -- Rich man's mail -- The talking telegraph -- Telephomania -- Second nature -- Gray wolves -- Universal service -- One great medium?

Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of the nation. This important book by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this book explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing.

Today's internet service providers mediate communication, control data flow, and influence everyday online interactions. In other words, they have become ideal agents of public policy and instruments of governance. In Telecom Tensions Mike Zajko considers the tensions inherent to this role – between private profits and the public good, competition and cooperation, neutrality and discrimination, surveillance and security – and asks what consequences arise from them. Many understand the internet as a technology that cuts out traditional gatekeepers, but as the importance of internet access has grown, the intermediaries connecting us to it have come to play an increasingly vital role in our lives. Zajko shows how the individuals and organizations that keep these networks running must satisfy a growing number of public policy objectives and contradictory expectations. Analyzing conflicts in Canadian policy since the commercialization of the internet in the 1990s, this book unearths the roots of contemporary debates by foregrounding the central role of internet service providers. From downtown data centres to publicly funded rural networks, Telecom Tensions explores the material infrastructure, power relations, and political aspirations at play. Theoretically informed but grounded in the material realities of people and places, Telecom Tensions is a fresh look at the political economy of telecommunications in Canada, updating conversations about liberalization and public access with contemporary debates over privacy, copyright, network neutrality, and cyber security.

China's telecommunications industry has seen revolutionary transformation and growth over the past three decades. Chinese Internet users number nearly 150 million, and the PRC expects to quickly pass the US in total numbers of connected citizens. The number of mobile and fixed-line telephone users soared from a mere 2 million in 1980 to a total of nearly 800 million in 2007. China has been the most successful developing nation in history for spreading telecommunications access at an unparalleled rapid pace. This book tells how China conducted its remarkable "telecommunications revolution". It examines both corporate and government policy to get citizens connected to both voice and data networks, looks at the potential challenges to the one-party government when citizens get this access, and considers the new opportunities for networking now offered to the people of one of the world's fastest growing economies. The book is based on the author's fieldwork conducted in several Chinese cities, as well as extensive archival research. It focuses on key issues such as building and running the country's Internet, mobile phone company rivalry, foreign investment in the sector, and telecommunications in China's vibrant city of Shanghai. It also considers the country's internal "digital divide", and questions how equitable the telecommunications revolution has been. Finally, it examines the ways the PRC's entry to the World Trade Organization will shape the future course of telecommunications growth.

"Highly recommended."--Library JournalThe wireless industry was built by a motley band of characters who, from the beginning, have fought unrelentingly against one another for a cut of the business. It's a surprising history full of winners, losers, and lucky first-time entrepreneurs who made millions.Written by industry insider James B. Murray, Jr., Wireless Nation chronicles the unique development of the wireless industry and the protagonists who brought it to life. In the mix is the inimitable entrepreneur Craig McCaw, MCI Chairman William McGowan, John Kluge of Metromedia, and also Peter Lewis, a former Army officer and cellular business pioneer whose career ended in disgrace when he finally bent the rules a little too far. Murray tells the story as only an insider can, detailing the incredible circumstances--not to mention the greatest government boondoggle of our time--that shaped and defined the coming century's most promising business. It is a must-read for anyone interested in new technology and the American business landscape.