ABSTRACT
The critical piece of the puzzle will be to define a model for institutional cooperation; a model consistent with and built on the dramatic leap forward Britain has made in the past decades. This chapter, by discussing the unique characteristics of the UK marketplace and the role of wireless access in the future development of the UK telecommunications market, offers some direction in that regard. It focuses on the history of telecommunications in the UK and then turns to the development of wireless access services. As in the United States, the first institutions that arose to provide telecommunications services in the United Kingdom were privately owned. But, unlike the example from across the Atlantic, the early history of telecommunications development in the UK is marked by a slow but conscious trend by governing authorities to dominate and control the new technology. The chapter examines the level and character of government policy and corporate strategy appropriate to the UK case.
