ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the process of liberalization in the United States and Europe. Although E.U. initiatives go back to 1983, the Green Paper outlined a basic strategy for the development of a common telecommunications infrastructure, as well as action lines for implementing those strategies. The chapter discusses the fundamental concerns: the fragmentation and increasing size of the European market, incompatibility of existing regulations in most member states, new opportunities offered by the single market, and deregulation of the US telecommunications market. The European Union could now push for the deregulation of all telecommunications services other than voice telephony, perhaps more importantly, for implementation of the Open Network Provision Directive. The telecommunications revolution now under way is, to a surprising extent, technology-driven, powerful technological changes have made the Nil technically possible, technologically exciting. While the new architecture offers attractive new markets, it also represents an alarming threat, since it brings with it the concurrent replacement of regulation by competition.