World Telecommunications Economics

An introduction to the concepts of economics within the telecommunications industry, which takes an international perspective and covers such issues as critical trends, costing, demand, pricing, regulation and performance.

This book constitutes a collaborative and selected documentation of the scientific outcome of the European COST Action IS0605 Econ@Tel "A Telecommunications Economics COST Network" which run from October 2007 to October 2011. Involving experts from around 20 European countries, the goal of Econ@Tel was to develop a strategic research and training network among key people and organizations in order to enhance Europe's competence in the field of telecommunications economics. Reflecting the organization of the COST Action IS0605 Econ@Tel in working groups the following four major research areas are addressed: - evolution and regulation of communication ecosystems; - social and policy implications of communication technologies; - economics and governance of future networks; - future networks management architectures and mechanisms.

This textbook characterizes the economics of telecommunication services from an engineering perspective. The authors bring out the fundamental drivers of the industry and characterize networks from a graph theoretic perspective, including random, small world, and scale free networks. The authors relate the topology of a telecommunication network using circuit and packet switched architectures to throughput and other performance parameters. The pricing model proposed in this book is based on the cost of displaced opportunity as opposed to the cost of the elements of the network engaged in delivering a service. The displaced opportunity is characterized by the revenue associated with the service that the network could have alternatively delivered most efficiently using an identical level of resources. The book addresses other topics such as regulation in legacy networks, and net neutrality. Finally, the book introduces the application of game theory in a multi-vendor, multi-services competitive marketplace. The book aims to bridge the gap between the science of economics as practiced by economists and practice of pricing from a telecommunication engineer’s perspective. This book is suitable for use by senior undergraduate or graduate students of telecommunication engineering or researchers and practitioners in telecommunication engineering.

This major reference work provides a thorough and up-to-date survey and analysis of recent developments in the economics of telecommunications. The Handbooks serve both as a source of reference and technical supplement for the field of telecommunications economics. Volume III examines the structure within which modern communications companies operate and evolve, and how corporations must account for multiple objectives associated with both national economic and social policy. The volume draws useful lessons from the recent corporate experience of major international telecommunications companies. The contributors explore the interaction of diversity in national approaches with the ongoing need for international cooperation and coordination, which continues to be an important area of debate. The Handbooks are written at a level intended for professional use by economists, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and will also prove useful to policy analysts, engineers and managers within the industry.

The authors analyze regulatory reform and the emergence of competitionin network industries using the state-of-the-art theoretical tools ofindustrial organization, political economy, and the economics ofincentives.

In February 1997, 69 countries accounting for 95 percent of world telecommunications traffic agreed to open their basic telecommunications service markets. In April 1997, 28 countries accounting for 80 percent of world trade in information technology (IT) goods agreed to eliminate tariffs on IT goods by January 2000. These two agreements represent significant steps toward global telecommunication liberalization. The agreements also mark the beginning of new battles that will determine the extent of competition and reform in the telecommunications industry in the 21st century. Although implementation of the two pacts will be phased in over several years, some signatory countries are already facing a backlash from local telecommunications companies and equipment suppliers. Hence the issue remains highly contentious around the world. In this volume, leading scholars from different countries offer their assessments of the two new agreements. They also predict the evolution of the telecommunications industry in the years ahead. The volume provides essential background on future developments in this dynamic and crucial sector, and suggests ways in which it can be shaped to provide maximum benefits for the world economy.

The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors around the world. This book offers a comprehensive economic analysis of the main determinants of growth in the industry. Harald Gruber demonstrates the importance of competitive entry and the setting of technological standards, both of which play a central role in their contribution to the fast diffusion of technology. Detailed country studies provide empirical evidence for the development of the main themes: the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services, the pricing policies in network industries, the role of entry barriers such as radio spectrum and spectrum allocation procedures. This research-based survey will appeal to a wide range of applied industrial economists within universities, government and the industry itself.