In many OECD countries, a primary longer term issue is how to provide universal service in the new competitive environment where voice is ubiquitous and cheap, voice revenues low and where voice has become just one of many applications provided on networks.

Significant changes in the structure of the telecommunication market have occurred since the introduction of competition in the sector. Now, companies are competing in all market segments and more importantly, competition is developing between companies, which use different network platforms...

Governments often regulate prices for public utilities. As telecommunication services markets have been opened to competition, new ways had to be found to regulate prices of the former monopoly carriers.

The avoidance of monopoly rents and the need to ensure the continuity and quality of supply have, historically, been among the key drivers for the creation of new trade routes. In the field of telecommunications, for much of the past century, there has been little scope for achieving either of...

Information is power. Nowhere is this truer than in regulation; and in telecommunications regulation particularly. For the complexity of the telecommunications systems to be regulated and the rapidly developing technology involved means that, in telecommunications even more than elsewhere,...

After analogue TV signals are switched off with the shift to digital transmission (analogue switchoff), a significant amount of spectrum bandwidth is expected to be freed-up, potentially making it available for other applications rather than replicating the similar quality analogue TV programmes...