ABSTRACT

The boundaries of the telecommunications industry have been under siege for some time as computers, office equipment and telecommunications converge into the so-called information technology sector. In stark contrast with semiconductors, consumer goods and computers, telecommunications markets have been severely partitioned along national lines, a result of chauvinistic public procurement policies and a thicket of nationally specific technical standards. The supply of telecommunications equipment is highly concentrated, the top ten firms accounting for some 80 per cent of world sales. The main employment growth in telecommunications will tend to be found in new generations of telecommunications services. The US telecommunications market remains the largest, the most liberalized and the most technologically advanced in the world. The ‘imperatives’ in the telecommunications sector may be broadly similar for all the European Community countries but, thus far, what is most striking is the diverse ways in which each country is negotiating them.