No industry has expanded faster than telecommunications, gained so many new users, added so much value, spread so rapidly to the underdeveloped areas of developing countries, done so much to close the digital divide and provide access to e-learning, e-health, and e-commerce across the countries of the Asia Pacific. Telecommunications Development in Asia provides a completely new and comprehensive analysis of the policies adopted throughout the region that have led to the explosive growth of this sector. It is a sequel to the 1995 landmark publication, John Ure (editor) Telecommunications in Asia: Policy, Planning and Development, and like the earlier volume will become a popular and indispensable guide for professionals, policy-makers and regulators working in telecommunications-related sectors. Part One of this new book is thematic. It reviews global best practices across a range of key issues facing the industry, from regulation, competition policy and the provision of universal service, to interconnection between competing networks, the management of radio spectrum for the all-important wireless communications sector, and an assessment of innovation in the telecommunications equipment market. Part Two examines markets across the Asia Pacific region, exploring the themes of Part One through in-depth country studies. Policy and regulations, industry trends and markets are uniquely placed in their historical, economic and political context. No other publication offers such comprehensive insights and understanding of the dynamic of these markets. And like the 1995 book, this one looks likely to stand the test of time.

A comprehensive analysis of the policies adopted throughout the Asia Pacific region that have led to an explosive growth of the telecommunications sector. Part one reviews global best practices across a range of key issues while part two examines markets across the region.

This book provides searching analysis and a detailed and comprehensive account of telecommunications in the developing economies of Southeast and East Asia.

Many Asian countries are achieving remarkable success in closing what researchers call the digital divide between developing and developed nations, while others continue to struggle. This collection of essays sheds light on the various ways in which the Internet has been seen in Asia. As we continue to debate new paradigms of research and development in the digital era, where innovations and convergences are the norm, this book fills an urgent need, revealing how the technological revolution has spread, and is spreading, throughout diverse nations. Chapters on the United States and Japan offer a sort of yardstick by which to measure and compare the diffusion and the impact of the Internet in other Asian countries, including China, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Appealing to readers interested in the development of the Asian region, technological innovation, and international communication, Cyberpath to Development in Asia offers an acute study of how a global phenomenon continues to manifest itself in a crucial part of the globe.

This book attempts to draw lessons from the experiences of developed as well as developing countries in carrying out telecommunications reform. Contributors come from academia, as well as from stakeholders in telecommunications policy in a dozen countries, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region. Globally, the telecommunications industry is undergoing major changes: technological advances in the form of a vast number of new digitised services, ownership shifts as state-owned carriers in many countries become fully or partly privatized, and a general transition from monopolistic to more competitive market environments. The economic and regulatory experiences derived from these changes are explored and analyzed using the USA, the UK, Australia and Singapore to represent developed and newly industrialized countries, and China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam as examples of developing countries. The conclusions outlined in this timely volume hold important lessons for these as well as for other countries.