ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces network industries in general and the main network industries – in the areas of communications, transport, and energy – in particular. It proposes their liberalization as well as on their regulation, considering that network industries are a very particular type of industry, which always have been and always will be regulated in one way or another. The book explains how network industry liberalization took place and how network industry re-regulation gradually came into place. It shows how network industry regulation is a profoundly political activity, even though the very aim of regulation is to somewhat shelter the different network industries from direct political intervention. The book presents regulatory authorities, which are probably the radical institutional innovation since the creation of the modern nation state. It discusses examines new developments in network industries caused by digitalization and assess their future evolution.