ABSTRACT
Countries' policies differ on structures and goals, and this chapter explains policy changes within three industrial countries – the United States, Japan, and Britain. In all three countries government regulation of telecommunications are becoming more politicized as losers in the market turn to political activity for compensation and as bureaucrats strive to extend their control. Telecommunications policy held within it elements of social policy and also goals belonging more too macroeconomic, employment, industrial, defense, or science policy than the expansion of telecommunications. The old concept of telecommunications was that of a natural monopoly; that is, it was argued that the entry costs in fixed capital investment were economies of scope and scale such that a duplication of facilities would increase unit costs and hence prices to the consumer. The old policy benefitted similar constituents in all industrialized countries: individual residential consumers, rural areas, trade unions, and telecommunications equipment manufacturers.
