Deployment of broadband, particularly, FTTx, is now one of major policy objectives in many countries, including Japan, Korea, and the U.S., for example. The U.S. announced a National Broadband Plan which aimed at providing 100 million households with access to 100 Mbps broadband services by...

User behavior of multimedia services currently undergoes strong changes. This is reflected in several recent trends, e.g. the increase of rich media content consumption, preferences for more individual and personalized services and the higher sensitivity of end users for quality issues. These...

The paper assesses the scope for competition inducing infrastructure regulation in furthering the diffusion of innovation. The paper uses data on the adoption of broadband services comprising a global panel of 167 countries. The effects of different regulatory provisions are assessed. The result...

Next generation access networks (NGAN) will support a renewed electronic communication market where main opportunities lie in the provision of ubiquitous broadband connectivity, applications and content. From their deployment it is - much - expected a wealth of innovations. Within this framework...

Each year the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development produces a report on foreign direct investment (FDI). This report highlights trends on FDI, and identifies the world's largest transnational corporation (TNC). Prominent among the largest TNS are telecommunication companies such as...

This report investigates the impact of trade structure and trade specialization on long-run development patterns in a heterogeneous set of countries, including most OECD countries, developing and rapidly industrializing Asian and Latin American countries as well as ten Central and Eastern...

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the...

The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) serves as a forum to negotiate, review, and revise the Radio Regulations (RR), an international treaty and one of the most difficult regulations for radiocommunication services. RR is complex since it includes intergovernmental issues in relation to...

The theory of established-outsider figurations developed by Norbert Elias is a use-ful tool for examining deprived neighbourhoods. The case of this paper is Dort-mund Nordstadt in Germany, an old inner-city neighbourhood which from its early days has housed the newly arrived immigrants. Elias...

The behaviour of urban populations is compared with the systems directing behaviour in individuals. This is both a metaphor and a mechanistic parallel. The biological model draws upon recent developments in brain research and psychological and cultural anthropology. The development and operation...