Communicating equally

“~~_ .,__~.f eporu conferences

K

The society is situated near Bonn. Within it, a small group of scientists evaluates and tries to

intertwo-year-old IKB. This disciplinary cable communication working group in Berlin concentrates intensively on the scientific preparation and evaluation of the field experiments planned for two-way cable TV. Several research institutes in West Berlin united two years ago to draft a clear, coherent

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medium for international exchange.2 Gesellschaft

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cation on social groups. The society has created a special research area, ‘impact research’, and has started to gather statements in books, articles, and research projects concerning the socioeconomic impacts of telecommunications.3 HHI. Ih 1978 the Heinrich-HertzInstitut in Berlin had its scope extended by a small group of economists and cncinloeists "------LI----

aiming

to

cQmp!ete

its

research panorama. In the opinion of the former Minister of Research and Technology (the main sponsor of the Institute), technical work in the telecommunications sector requires special analyses of the surrounding societal conditions that influence the technology to a large extent.’

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These institutes are: experiments. Federal Institute for Professional Education (research emphasis is on cable TV and teaching adults); Institute for Education by Media of the Pedagogical University (man-machine learning systems in cable TV); Institute for Sociology of the Free University telecommunications (impact of technology); Institute of Journalism of the Free University (mass-media interaction: !oca!-nrew ___.___) r-----

effects -- cable ----- TV\: - .I, ------- of

German Institute of Urbanism (local publicity, local governments and citizen interactions); the International Institute for Management and Administration in telecommunications (innovation technologies); the Institute for Future Research (scenarios of changes in lifedata-protection aspects, styles, the

cable cost-benefit analyses of investments, economic impacts). The IKB is the only totally independent research group focusing on evaluations of telecommunications; all the abovementioned instituteS research are financed by government (or, as in the Munich Circle, work in close contact with the Bavarian D9nwmmentl _ . _......_.. _,.s Helgomar Economist, Institute

Pichlmayer,

Scientific

Staff,

for Future Research Ltd, Berlin, W German y

’ For detailed information, contact Erik Rupp, c/o AGF-ASA in der DFVLR, Linder HBhe, 5000 K&n 90, W Germany. 2 Contact Professor Witte. c/o Muenchner Kreis, Prinzregentenstr 28, D-8000 Muenchen 22, W Germany. ‘Contact Jiirgen Reese, c/o GMD. Arbeitsarupoe WIFO, Postfach 1240. D5205 SiA&&stin 1, W Germany. ‘Contact Dr Pfab, c/o Heinrich-Hertzlnstitut fi.ir Nachrichtentechnik Berlin GmbH. WISO-Gruppe. Einsteinufer 37, D-l 000 Berlin 10. W Germanv. ’ Rolf Kreibich. c/o lnstitut f& Zukunftsforschung, Giesebrechtst? 15, D- 1000 Berlin 12, W Germany.

Conferences Communicating

equally

Round Table on Telecommunications for Economic France,

and Social

25 June

Research

and Equality, organized into Telecommunications

by the Institute (IREST),’

Paris,

1979

The President of IREST, Jacques Dondoux, chaired the day’s discussion, which focused on rates and equality of ______ _~ .-1._ access IO releconimuriication services from geographical, social and other points of view. Some 200 people attended, most of them members of IREST. To start off the debate, Francois Billetdoux, a playwright and representative of the General Directorate of Radio France, developed the theme by highlighting its historical, philosophical His and organizational aspects.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

contribution was backed by studies and examples from France and elsewhere. The work of the sociologist Ronald .X,- . westrum was quoted, with pariicuiar reference to the impact of the development of communications on organizations. Growth in the volume of communication, geographical decentralization but management centralization, the increasing pace of organizational life, and a strengthening of nationalization in the elaboration of objectives, were factors which were noted and shown to be related to the

POLICY December 1979

concept of freedom and monopoly which had already been the object of various studies by IREST. naising the nllpctinn of the ..a... rioht tn _L.._“..V.. ,” communicate, was being which increasingly considered in several countries, Mr Billetdoux talked of some experiments he 6as carrying out on population participation at the local level. He wondered what the impact of the new technology would be - would the poor become poorer and the rich richer? ‘Mr Esambert, President of Compagnie Financiire, examined the subject from the angle of economics. He reminded participants of the theories of the role of prices in a liberal economy. There existed in France today a strong tendency in favour of price liberalization. However, there were also factors of political economy to be considered. For example, institutions responsible for national development

327

Corlferences were strongly in favour of telecommunication charges to be unrelated to distance, a concept made possible by technological progress and economies of scale.2 Many thought that the time factor should be taken into account more, in order to make better use of infrastructures - time-based tariffs for local calls, peak and off-peak calling periods, and so on.

Access to services Mr Denis Tonnerre, national secretary of the CFDT Post and Telecommunications Union, presented the views of a trade unionist on the economic and social aspects of the theme. For him, physical access to the telephone was still inadequate. There were nearly one and a half million telephone applications on the waiting list in 1978 and the waiting time was still very long. There were some 60 000 public call-boxed but there should be many more. (This contrasted with the number of letter boxes, for example, which was well over 200000.) The economic aspect is important (ie, charges, financing) but it was also a question of politics. Mr Tonnerre pointed out that the steps taken in 1978 in favour of old people had been politically motivated. Greater efforts should also be made to help other underprivileged categories, such as handicapped people. Mr Tonnerre mentioned the recent increase in charges (which some newspapers called ‘a clandestine increase’), bringing the basic charge up from 0.47 FF to 0.5 FF and eliminating the differential charges for calls to telephones within 100-200 km. He also spoke of postal charges. In this case, the ordinary user was subsidizing the deficit resulting from special newspaper rates, although some papers contained little more than advertising. In the area of telecommunications, new services were being ‘subsidiarized’4 to evade public tariffing regulations.

Hidden imbalances MS Evelyne Fallot, a journalist from L’Express, put forward the point of view of the consumer. She noted that the outstanding efforts made in developing telecommunications had not yet been able to reduce existing imbalances, which

328

were hidden in the figures published by the government. These were only averages, and did not reflect reality well. The imbalances could be found, for example, in the waiting list for new telephones. There was inequality between the regions, especially between the more rural areas and Paris. There was also an imbalance in regional telephone distribution. Some industrial areas (the east and the north) were under-supphed, compared with the natural average and with Paris in particular. On the operational side, quality- of service left much to be desired, despite the optimism of official statistics. This was even more so if one took into account the opinions expressed by newspaper readers, who seemed very concerned by the problems of telecommunications. Difficulties were often experienced with some trunk calls and especially with international calls. also Readers criticized public telephone availability, particularly in rural areas. There was not even any real equality, according to MS Fallot, in the public services, even if absolute equality was deemed impossible over the entire system. To conclude, MS Failot asked a number of questions about the criteria used by the Public Telecommunications Service when allocating resources: was this done according to profitability, to demand, to waiting times, or other factors? The point of view of the consumer was also put forward by Mr Jean Francois Berry, Vice President of AFUTT (French Association of Telephone and Telecommunications Users) and INTUG (International Telecommunications Users Group). Despite a reduction in prices in constant francs, access to the network was still expensive. In addition, there existed inequalities between individual French citizens in the waiting periods required for equipment installation. Telecommunications rates were not consistent and were higher than in many other countries, whether for local calls, for intercity calls or for international calls. Several examples of international comparisons were given.J (AFUTT was preparing, with the help of Logica Ltd, a price index of telephone charges in various countries.) Another aspect of the telephone

system, information, should be improved; users should be informed about the way rates were calculated. Present telephone bills were inadequate and a detailed accounting system should soon be introduced for all users. Lastly, it would be important to keep watch over the implementation of the recent law (17 July 1978) on Access to Administrative Documents, to enable consumers and their associations to defend their interests more easily through better information.

Official plans The representative of the General Directorate of Telecommunications (DGT), Mr Paul Carenco, set out the guiding principles followed by his department, especially on the question of rates. As a part of the general budget, the PTT budget must be balanced. The number of exchange lines doubled between 1974 and 1978, from 6 million to 12 million, and should reach 20 million by 1982. This new equipment programme should be largely selffinanced. The 7th Plan of the DOT would allow for equipment price rises equivalent to those of the Gross National Product. In making the complex calculations necessary to set tariff charges, many factors had to be considered. For example, some ‘social’ services, such as the telegraph service, must be run at a loss and compensated for by other, more profitable operations. Mr Carenco admitted that equality of access to the telephone was not yet perfect, and that the ‘average’ waiting time for connection was a blanket figure which concealed a range of situations. However, progress had been made, since the average waiting time had been brought down in the past five years from over 16 months to 7 months and would be down to 3 months-by 1982. The DGT would like to eliminate all unnecessary waiting. If some regional differences were observed, one reason was that demand did not follow the same pattern everywhere. On the whole, companies (19% of main telephone lines) generated 56% of calls; self-employed persons (11% of lines) generated 9% of calls; and householders (69% of lines) generated 35% of calls.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

POLICY December

1979

Conferences

A number of anomalies could be mentioned, as Mr Berry did, with regard to some local or other types of calls, but one should be aware of the fact that present-day charge categories were the result of a long historical development. The DGT was trying to eliminate anomalies as far as possible. Quality of service was also very closely watched. The automation rate was 99.8% at the end of 1978; productivity doubled in seven years. Under the 7th Plan, very important projects had been programmed in several fields. More were programmed under the 8th Plan, which was now being drafted. Mr Mercier spoke on the fixed charges for radio and television, on the right to communicate, and on the limits of the public services. Several participants then stressed the question of new products

and services which is becoming increasingly important. Some people were in favour of the growing move to leave unprofitable services as well as transmission in the care of the central administration, but to hand over to subsidiaries (or even to abandon to private companies) the marketing of terminals and profitmaking activities. Others considered that management of all services by a subsidiary would facilitate financing, and lead to more flexibility and a ‘more commercial attitude’, while retaining a measure of control. government Competitive management would permit the lowering of prices for terminals, and thus allow greater access. Pierre Tornato, Secretary-General,

IREST,

Paris, France

’IREST, 48 rue de la Procession, 75015 Paris, France - a voluntary organization with more than 1 200 members in 1979, in France and throughout the world. p From 1965 to 1979, the averaoe annual cost of the satellite circuit decreased from $23 000 to $200, ie. a reduction of over 99%. Other reductions were also made in other means of transmission. (James Martin, Future Developments in Telecommunications.) 3 According to official figures, at the end of 1978 more than 107 000 public telephones were in service, including 27 000 in post offices and nearly 50 000 on public highways (call-boxes). ’ Oi marketed by subsidiaries which, for all intents and purposes, operate like private companies. s Following the recent price increases in June 1979. 6 From the Journal Officiel of 23 July 1976. ’ Round table reports are published in French in the IREST Bulletin. For additional information. please contact the author.

Teleinformatics speakers discuss European and US constraints Teleinformatics Communities,

79’. sponsored and the

by UNESCO,

International

organized

by I’Association

Technique.

Paris, 1 l- 13 June

Council

Francaise

for Computer la Cybernetique

of the European Communication, Economique

et

1979.

Two papers presented in the session on ‘Political issues” at Teleinformatics 79 focused on the constraints to the deveiopment of teleinformatics services. ‘Is small necessarily beautiful? was the question posed by Dr Martyn Roetter and Malcom H. Ross (Arthur D. Little, Inc). Their concern was with the anxiety increasingly apparent in Europe that microprocessing technology threatens employment and personal freedom. Dividing their discussion reviews of into organizational issues, social factors and regulatory issues, they argued that such fears, combined with the conservative attitudes of users and regulatory institutions, would impede the adoption of teleinformatics. Roetter and Ross considered that the greatest inhibition to the development of new services lay in the problems faced by the European regulatory bodies.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

pour

the Commission

Telecommunications was constrained regulations oriented towards by networks in which the component parts could be up to fifty years old. Given the contrasting rapid developments in the computer industry and the quick upgrading of equipment, the marriage between the two participants in teleinformatics would not be a smooth one. The process of designing, developing, testing, proving and installing a telecommunication system tended to be so slow that it was usually obsolete when it finally appeared. Furthermore, errors were extremely expensive and ‘even disastrous’ to the participants. The authors acknowledged that the difficulties of the PTTs were by no means imaginary: The F’TTs have of course many problems with their age mix of installed equipment, and these problems make them conservative towards adding a new generation and hence

POLICY December

1979

more problems to the existing mixture. Simply the retraining involved for installers and maintenance crews is a suficiently daunting task lo inhibit new systems. This argument is, we believe, quickly losing its force as European PTTs use more and more centralized testing and monitoring to make maintenance simpler and as the new systems become easy to service due to self-test and diagnosis facilities. The argument will, however, be extensively used by the unions.’

A further occasioned

constraint by

the

on tariff

growth

was

structures

imposed by the BlTs. These conflicted with the true costs of the services. As an example, Ross and Roetter referred to the use of geostationary satellites: With new technologies such as geostationary satellites it is likely that a London-Stockholm call and a London-New York call will both go via the satellite and the cost to the PTT of these two calls is essentially identical. The tariff to the user, however, is not. International tariffs inside Europe are many times national rates and inhibit cross-national development of teleinformatics. An additional significant factor was that the historical development of the PTTs, particularly their close relationships

329