Regulatory Reform and the Promise of New Telecommunications Infrastructure in New Jersey

The information superhighway is depicted as important to maintaining national competitiveness in a global economy. The concept is particularly evident in the state of New Jersey and its legislatively supported plan, Opportunity New Jersey, to deploy advanced telecommunications technologies to all homes and businesses in just 20 yr. This case study of the decision-making process behind the passage of the New Jersey legislation illustrates how telecommunications companies have worked to couple their desire for less regulation with the desire of state officials for economic development, by promising to upgrade the infrastructure of the public network. With the upgrade promise comes a hoped-for economic development payoff in education, through distance learning, in health care, through telemedicine, and especially in new jobs, by attracting information-intensive businesses, like finance and insurance, to relocate in their service areas. The lack of clear connection between infrastructure investments and economic development means that the twenty-first century will come before strategies such as this are proven.     

Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone Penetration in Camden,New Jersey

Ethnographic methods and geographic information systems were used to investigate the extent, causes and consequences of telephone disconnection in Camden, NJ. The results have significant implications for public policies intended to promote universal telephone penetration. Universal service is usually perceived as an issue for rural areas and the elderly, but the most extensive pockets of low telephone penetration are found in inner cities, where the problem is associated with the young, the transient, and ethnic minorities. The basic monthly rate paid by subscribers is usually thought to be the most important factor affecting affordability, but the data suggest that most marginal users are driven off the network by usage-related costs, and more generally by the problem of credit-worthiness. Given prevailing consumption patterns in low-income urban areas, ''electronic redlining'' seems less of a threat than that poor Americans will, upon exposure to the advanced features of the national information infrastructure (NII), buy services that they cannot afford. Intellectuals and policy analysts value telephone service more than cable television service, but residents of inner cities frequently do not agree with this evaluation. In reformulating universal service policy, we must take account of the growing heterogeneity of telecommunications services, and keep in mind the importance of credit risk as a factor affecting the public's ability to access and use telecommunication networks.     

Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone Penetration in Camden, New Jersey

Ethnographic methods and geographic information systems were used to investigate the extent, causes and consequences of telephone disconnection in Camden, NJ. The results have significant implications for public policies intended to promote universal telephone penetration. Universal service is usually perceived as an issue for rural areas and the elderly, but the most extensive pockets of low telephone penetration are found in inner cities, where the problem is associated with the young, the transient, and ethnic minorities. The basic monthly rate paid by subscribers is usually thought to be the most important factor affecting affordability, but the data suggest that most marginal users are driven off the network by usage-related costs, and more generally by the problem of credit-worthiness. Given prevailing consumption patterns in low-income urban areas, 'electronic redlining' seems less of a threat than that poor Americans will, upon exposure to the advanced features of the national information infrastructure (NII), buy services that they cannot afford. Intellectuals and policy analysts value telephone service more than cable television service, but residents of inner cities frequently do not agree with this evaluation. In reformulating universal service policy, we must take account of the growing heterogeneity of telecommunications services, and keep in mind the importance of credit risk as a factor affecting the public's ability to access and use telecommunication networks.     

Socioeconomic Implications of Telecommunications Liberalization: India in the International Context

Telecommunications restructuring have evolved differently in Asia and Latin America. While Asian governments have moved cautiously in bringing changes to the sector, Latin American nations have implemented radical ownership and market transformations. The Indian telecommunications reform falls in between these two general regional trends. The choice of a high component of competition, increased private participation, and no privatization of the national carrier set conditions that will trigger unique socioeconomic effects. This article identifies and highlights the likely implications of the Indian reform on key economic and social issues, such as the cost of services, cross-subsidies, network interconnection, private investments, universal services, employment, and the possible rise of an information-intensive economy. It does so by comparing and contrasting the Indian experience with dominant reform strategies elsewhere in the developing world.     

Utopianism and National Competitiveness in Technology Rhetoric: The Case of Japan's Information Infrastructure

The ideologies of technological utopianism and national competitiveness are two common strands of twentieth century technology policy in developed nations. The former is the tendency to paint an unrealistic picture of schedule or benefits for a planned technological shift, while the latter is the use of a (real or imagined) advantage held by another nation as a justification for domestic policies. Both are techniques that can and have been used to sell technology policies to government, industry, and the public at large. This theoretical framework is used to analyze the emergence of the 'multimedia'/information infrastructure boomlet in Japan in the mid 1990s, and, in the context of the country's history and institutions, is used to explain the policy distortions that resulted.     

Leaving It Up to the Industry: People With Disabilities and the Telecommunications Act of 1996

This article examines whether Section 255 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act achieves accessibility for people with disabilities. Taking the interest group approach, it shows that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented Section 255 in a way that is favorable to the telecommunications industry and not to people with disabilities. The FCC's regulations only encourage the telecommunication industry to consider accessibility issues for people with disabilities. This proindustry regulatory bias is in keeping with the established pattern of policymaking in other areas concerning people with disabilities. The paper argues that if the FCC continues to rely on the voluntary efforts of the industry, people with disabilities will not enjoy benefits of access to telecommunications systems.     

Leaving It Up to the Industry: People With Disabilities and the Telecommunications Act of 1996

This article examines whether Section 255 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act achieves accessibility for people with disabilities. Taking the interest group approach, it shows that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented Section 255 in a way that is favorable to the telecommunications industry and not to people with disabilities. The FCC's regulations only encourage the telecommunication industry to consider accessibility issues for people with disabilities. This proindustry regulatory bias is in keeping with the established pattern of policymaking in other areas concerning people with disabilities. The paper argues that if the FCC continues to rely on the voluntary efforts of the industry, people with disabilities will not enjoy benefits of access to telecommunications systems.     

Leveraging Sunken Investments in Communications Infrastructure: A Policy Perspective From the United States

Bridging the digital divide between information and technology haves and have-nots has waned from the top of the national policy agenda in the United States during a time in which the sunken investments of the 1990s need to be leveraged. A national information network now exists yet this infrastructure--largely hardware--needs to be continually modernized and parlayed with commitments to building human capacity, developing relevant content, and scaling socially beneficial technology applications, such as telemedicine, in order to optimize these initial multi-billion-dollar outlays. This article makes the case that sidestepping public-private initiatives aimed at accelerating digital opportunity is imprudent, given the mounting empirical evidence highlighting the payoffs of information and communications technologies, when properly integrated and applied, especially in enhancing the life chances of underserved Americans. Policy next steps should advance the goals of expanding universal service initiatives, including hastening broadband deployment to homes and learning institutions, and deepening programs which leverage the utility of the existing infrastructure, such as expanding human-capital development, producing relevant content, and innovating socially beneficial technology applications.     

Leveraging Sunken Investments in Communications Infrastructure: A Policy Perspective From the United States

Bridging the digital divide between information and technology haves and have-nots has waned from the top of the national policy agenda in the United States during a time in which the sunken investments of the 1990s need to be leveraged. A national information network now exists yet this infrastructure--largely hardware--needs to be continually modernized and parlayed with commitments to building human capacity, developing relevant content, and scaling socially beneficial technology applications, such as telemedicine, in order to optimize these initial multi-billion-dollar outlays. This article makes the case that sidestepping public-private initiatives aimed at accelerating digital opportunity is imprudent, given the mounting empirical evidence highlighting the payoffs of information and communications technologies, when properly integrated and applied, especially in enhancing the life chances of underserved Americans. Policy next steps should advance the goals of expanding universal service initiatives, including hastening broadband deployment to homes and learning institutions, and deepening programs which leverage the utility of the existing infrastructure, such as expanding human-capital development, producing relevant content, and innovating socially beneficial technology applications.     

国外电信业公私合作的做法及启示

在建设信息化社会的过程中,国外一些国家或地区电信业出现了政府部门重掌其发展规划、投资建议、并与私营部门合作经营的新趋势。本文介绍了荷兰、意大利、澳大利亚和新西兰电信业采用公私合作的做法,总结了国外电信业公私合作的特征,并结合中国电信业的现状,分析了国外电信业公私合作做法对中国电信业的启示,以期对中国的信息化建设提供借鉴。     

Telecommunications and Transnationalism: The Polarization of Social Space

This article critically assesses the policy orientation, social impacts, and linkages of telecommunications in the United States within a government deregulated policy environment and an increasingly globalized economy. Deregulation has been driven by both ideological and technological demands, stemming from several political and economic transformations in the world economy, the collapse of state socialism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and greater oligopolistic competition among transnational corporations. An expanded infrastructure of new digital information and communications technology (ICT) is the foundation of a worldwide political economic regime of accumulation. ICT increases command and control capabilities of large corporations, together with the mobility and liquidity of capital, making it essential to the restructuring of the world economy, the new international division of labor, and the creation of global "information city" networks. At the same time, government deregulation and rapid technological change are associated with a number of spatial, economic, and social dualisms.     

Telecommunications and information networks: Growing international tensions and their underlying causes

Abstract

This article explores the growing international tensions over information networks and the conflict related to the underlying telecommunications networks that lies at the heart of the matter. Telecommunications policy and practice is changing significantly in many countries and at the international level. Tensions and conflict are identified as taking place on four levels: conflict over underlying values, conflict between and among different industry groups, political conflict among nations, and an emerging trade politics related to the application of services trade principles and rules to telecommunications and information services. These levels of tension/conflict should not be treated as distinct and mutually exclusive, but rather as overlapping and interactive, emphasizing the complex and increasingly serious nature of this important issue.     

论投资银行在我国基础设施产业改革中的作用

通过对我国基础设施产业改革和投资银行业发展的分析，指出二者存在着明显的互动效应，确定了投资银行在基础设施产业改革中的角色定位，并对投资银行可以采取的金融创新进行了分析。     

Prospects for Expanded Universal Service in Europe: The Cases of Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway

In Europe, universal service developed within a public-service-oriented institutional framework. The historical conflicts that produced these institutional arrangements are still important for national policymaking. Furthermore, the level of technological development and integration in the European Union forms the context in which decisions concerning universal service are made. Our analysis of telecommunications policies in three small European countries - Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway - shows that business actors are well networked and press for a minimal definition of universal services, whereas those actors promoting an extended definition seem to be less coordinated and therefore less successful. Hence it is unlikely that universal services will be defined more extensively in the future.     

我国基础设施建设制度的建构原则

大力推基础设施建设是目前我国发展中的战略性举措，其中的关键就在于如何建立良性的激励性制度，但是从制度背景和绩效分析来看，我国现有的基础设施建设制度并不能提供有效的激励，亟待修正，本文就此提出相关的政策建议，以便国家在加大基础设施投资的同时，更有效地进行宏观调控和微观激励。     

Networked Commerce: Public Policy Issues in a Deregulated Communication Environment

Electronic commerce will generate a number of new policy issues, few of which are presently being considered. Lawmakers and regulators have been so focused on establishing appropriate rules for vendors and service providers that they have failed to consider the larger consequences that the ensuing network architecture may have for the economy as a whole. Examining the forces driving electronic commerce and its likely impact on network deployment given recent telecom reform, this article argues that the government should reconsider common carriage as a means of assuring network access in the future.     

Social Equity and Prosperity: Thailand Information Technology Policy into the 21st Century

This forum presents Thailand's National Information Technology (IT) Plan and comments on the plan by three international experts: Seymour Goodman, Heinrich Reinermann, and G. Russell Pipe. The plan, which was prepared for Thailand's National IT Committee by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, is striking for its explicit consideration of social as well as economic goals in its specific objectives and implementation proposals. Agenda item 1 of the plan is to 'Invest in an Equitable Information Infrastructure: To Enhance Human Ability and Enhance Life Quality.' Implementation of the plan is proceeding well, although somewhat more slowly than anticipated, and support for the original goals and objectives remains strong.     

Social Equity and Prosperity: Thailand Information Technology Policy into the 21st Century

This forum presents Thailand's National Information Technology (IT) Plan and comments on the plan by three international experts: Seymour Goodman, Heinrich Reinermann, and G. Russell Pipe. The plan, which was prepared for Thailand's National IT Committee by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, is striking for its explicit consideration of social as well as economic goals in its specific objectives and implementation proposals. Agenda item 1 of the plan is to ''Invest in an Equitable Information Infrastructure: To Enhance Human Ability and Enhance Life Quality.'' Implementation of the plan is proceeding well, although somewhat more slowly than anticipated, and support for the original goals and objectives remains strong.     

我国基础领域的管制与改革——以电力行业为例

介绍我国电力行业的管制改革方案并进行了评述,在此基础上提出了对我国电力行业进一步管制改革的建议,提出了放松对竞争性环节的进入管制,引入民营资本,在可竞争领域引入竞争机制;重建政府管制体系和控股企业引入职业经理人制度并建立激励约束机制的政策性建议,以提高我国对基础性产业的政府管制效率。