ABSTRACT
Goals for telephone density and network expansion have been reformulated as national goals by the successor states and remain very high. This chapter aims to consider some major development issues and strategies for expanding and modernizing the telecommunications sector in the successor states of the Soviet Union over the next decade or so. It outlines three related issues that will be at the heart of future development. First, what kind of prospects are there for attracting foreign resources for growth and modernization? Second, what is happening with respect to the development of a domestic equipment sector that can cover the demand for equipment? Third, what are the prospects for domestic finance of the sector? The Ukrainian venture has become a source of bitter debate, with critics charging that the Ukrainian side has given away too much to attract foreign participation and that it traded away national interests for private gains.
