ABSTRACT
It is a rare occurrence in history when an innovation in economic and financial policy catches on as quickly and in so many different countries as privatization of publicly owned monopolies and deregulation of privately owned ones. Since the beginning of the 1980s this trend has spread across continents from affluent nations to low-income ones, representing a structural shift that favors greater reliance on market forces for efficient resource allocation. The central issue is control. Who will control the switches of information and who will be the beneficiaries of such control? The popularity of the privatization movement rests on the assumption that competition will better serve the users and protect them from predatory pricing. However, policies to deregulate have to contend with existing cultures, traditions, and laws and cannot be transplanted from one country to another. These considerations often take precedence over economic factors in the saga of deregulation of telecommunications in the Asia-Pacific region.
