Data on broadband performance shows that Japan and Korea are significantly ahead of the USA and Europe. Korea is by far the global front-runner in terms of broadband penetration. However, Japan is the global leader in terms of speed, price and diffusion of advanced technology (specifically...

Computers, telecommunications equipment, semiconductorsthe products and technologies of the information and communications industry (IC)have transformed our world. Most of these products were initially developed in Western countries, but by the early 1990s some of the world's largest companies...

Japanese companies have recently been criticized for allegedly failing to compete effectively in the world market for complex telecommunications equipment, and responsibility for their poor performance has been attributed to the 'NTT family system' -- the formal basis for cooperation between the...

This paper deals with the changing role of research and development in BT, NTT and AT&T as these companies respond to their changed status as privatized, partly privatized and divested companies and to increasing competition. The paper shows that these companies have fundamentally different...

In an earlier issue of this journal1 on the future of Japanese telecommunications the author argued that, while the current debate in Japan has focused almost exclusively on whether or not NTT should be divested, a more important question is how to ensure the establishment of competitive...

A debate is currently raging in Japan about the future of the telecommunications industry. In this commentary, the author gives his personal opinion of the development of the Japanese telecommunications sector and the restructuring of NTT. In his view, whether NTT is broken up is not the most...

AT&T, BT and NTT, the three major telcos to be liberalized in the mid-1980s, face an increasingly similar environment. Yet they have developed fundamentally different beliefs regarding what must be done in order to survive and prosper in this environment. This paper examines the different...

This paper explores the uses and limitations of a qualitative layer model in order to understand the structure and dynamics of the Infocommunications Industry from an evolutionary perspective. It is concluded that although there are some important drawbacks in using such a model, a sufficient...

A decade ago Japanese information and communications (ICT) companies were perceived as posing a significant competitive threat to their Western competitors. Now they are perceived as being in a state of crisis and decline. Have Japanese ICT firms collapsed? Are they to be written off in the...

What is the telecommunications industry? How does it relate to other activities in areas such as computing, software, semiconductors, the internet and electronic commerce, and the media? Where are its boundaries? What products and services should be included within it? What are its major...