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mobile telecoms
Book reviews
He should not have been surprised. Simply put, all of the telecommunications machinations in the USA as well as Nebraska have not changed the underlying political benefits and costs at the margin: optimal vote-getting still requires high long-distance and low residence rates. With this still in place, no political process will ever voluntarily upset this political balance. Only legal or competitive forces outside of the immediate political process can force change regardless of the economic desirability of doing so. As long as the explicit threat to jump back into the market loomed on the horizon in Nebraska, and as long as competition was not allowed to tear the imbalances apart, the Nebraska experiment was doomed from the beginning. Mueller’s correct analysis of the changes that full deregulation would bring (Chapter 2) did not come about simply because full deregulation was not tried, and in a political environment it should not have been
expected. Only the inevitable gnawing of competition that escapes the tentacles of the regulators can bring about a more (economically) efficient telecommunications market. The above does not do justice to Mueller’s competent, non-technical and readable account of the Nebraska deregulation effort. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a blow-by-blow description of a serious, but failed, experiment in local deregulation in the USA. In fact, it goes much farther than the Nebraska situation, and the reader will come away from this book with a better understanding of the promise and problems facing the entire telecommunications industry in the USA, and elsewhere for that matter.
John T Wenders Department of Economics University of Idaho Moscow, ID, USA
Integration of mobile networks FIXED/MOBILE
TELECOMS
Integration of Services and Networks by Susan Ablett, Peter Aknai, Tim Harrabin and Graham Louth Analysis Briefing Report Series on European Telecommunications No 8, Cambridge, UK, 1993
This report was written to assess to what extent mobile telecommunication networks could work with fixed networks in an integrated way and to what extent they will remain separate services. The answer from the study is not clear, but two alternative scenarios illustrate likely developments. One scenario looks at integration of fixed and mobile telecommunications as a response to customer demand and market opportunities. At the end mobile network operators have to integrate these parts of the fixed network that need to support their own services. The consequence is that
Telecommunications
mobile operators become the nucleus around which separate networks develop and emerge in addition to existing fixed networks. The alternative scenario is one in which mobile operators are reintegrated into the dominant telecommunications operator, but the European states still have increased competition in mobile and in network services through the licensing of other integrated operators. While there are attempts in Europe to follow the second scenario, developments elsewhere (North America, Australia) indicate that separate networks are not usually established because of different technologies, but because they serve different clients. A more sensible policy would therefore allow integration of the first kind to take place so that through proper regulation integrated and fixed and mobile entrants can obtain a strong enough market share, picking up significant players in each of the European national territories. As Euro-
Policy 1994 Volume 18 Number
7
pean regulation will probably not allow this to happen before the end of the decade, the report in essence tries to discuss the likely outcome with this framework in mind. Chapter 1 outlines the key drivers of integration - market demand and commercial opportunities - and looks at forces operating in the market. Physical, functional and standardization aspects of integrating the fixed and mobile networks are discussed in Chapter 2. An assessment of the different strategies of the various actors is provided in Chapter 3 (that is, separate mobile network operators, integrated fixed and mobile service providers, independent network operators such as cable TV companies, electricity and railroad companies, etc, and the equipment manufacturers). The strengths and weaknesses of the different players are then discussed and reference is made to the recent North American experience to interpret these strategies in the light of recent empirical evidence (ie AT&T’s acquisition of McCaw and US West’s recent strategic partnership with Time Warner). Chapter 4 attempts to model the opportunities for mobile operators with or without integration and for different customer groups. This too is done in a scenario-type framework so it is very difficult to conclude anything from this aggregated analysis across different customer groups. It is for this reason that Chapter 5 ends with comparison of the two scenarios we discussed before, against the background of the likely European regulatory environment. This book is therefore largely a product of a market and technology assessment and a thought experiment. It sets out the relevant technical and economic issues but it does not link them enough to the European market side to yield stronger conclusions. As a consequence it is only a first step in making the analyst aware of what are the principal issues when one is trying to address the question of ‘integration or non-integration of mobile services by telecommunication services and networks’. The answer to this question requires a second and much more
565
Book reviewslCalendar
refined, detailed approach at the national level. While this may be a weakness as far as the European situation is concerned it nevertheless pro-
vides an analytical framework which can also be applied at national level and in other regions of the world.
Jiirgen Miiller Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union Geneva, Switzerland
Telecommunication
Calendar Event
Date and venue
The Twenty-second Telecommunications Conference
1994 l-3 October
Annual Policy Research
Solomons,
ICIN 94: 3rd International Conference on Intelligence in Networks
Broadcast
Cable and Satellite
Communications
India ‘94
Intelec 94
INTELCOM 94 - International Telecommunication Congress
France
Prem Behl, Exhibitions India, E-6 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India. Tel: +91 11462 2710/11, fax: +91 11463 3506
30 October-3
Intelec 94,48 rue de la Procession, 75724 Paris cedex 15, France. Tel: +33 144 49 60 60,fax: +33144496044
November Canada
Italy
1995 20-23 February
Convention
Secretariat du Colloque International sur L’Intelligence dans les Reseaux, ADERA, BP 196,33608 Pessac cedex, France. Tel: +33 56 15 1158, fax: +33 56 15 1160
25-28 October New Delhi. India
Turin,
Vancouver,
and
Dawn Higgins, Conference Coordinator, TPRC Inc, PO Box 19203, Washington DC 20036, USA. Tel: + 1202 452 9033
Prem Behl, Exhibitions India, E-6 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India. Tel: +91 11462 2710/11, fax: +9111463 3506
2-5 November
ISS ‘95 (XV International Switching Symposium): Advanced Switching Technologies for Universal Telecommunications at the Beginning the 21st Century Broadcasting
USA
25-28 October New Delhi, India
Vancouver,
International 95 (IBC 95)
MA,
11-13 October Bordeaux,
India ‘94
Inter Comm 95 Global Telecommunications Congress Exhibition
Details from
Canada
23-28 April Berlin,
Germany
of
8-12 September Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Arnaldo Armida, Adtech International, Via Balilla 51, 65100 Pescara, Italy. Tel: +392 29510991, fax: +392 2952 3941
Inter Comm 95,500-1190 Melville St, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6E 3Wl. Tel: + 1604 669 1090, fax: + 1604 682 5703 ISS ‘95 Secretariat, c/o VDE, Conference Organization, Stresemannallee 15, D60596 Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Tel: +49 69 63 08 831, fax: +49 69 96 3152 13
IBC Convention Office, Savoy Place, London WC2R OBL, UK. Tel: +44 (0)71 240 3839, fax: +44 (0)71497 3633
This calendar of events is based on information provided by the respective organizers and from secondary sources. Telecommunications Policy welcomes information on meetings suitable for listing in this section. Copy deadlines are three months ahead of cover dates and information should be sent to: ‘Telecommunications
Jordan 566
Policy Calendar’, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, Linacre Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK. Fax: +44 (0)865 314412. Telecommunications
House,
Policy 1994 Volume 18 Number 7
He should not have been surprised. Simply put, all of the telecommunications machinations in the USA as well as Nebraska have not changed the underlying political benefits and costs at the margin: optimal vote-getting still requires high long-distance and low residence rates. With this still in place, no political process will ever voluntarily upset this political balance. Only legal or competitive forces outside of the immediate political process can force change regardless of the economic desirability of doing so. As long as the explicit threat to jump back into the market loomed on the horizon in Nebraska, and as long as competition was not allowed to tear the imbalances apart, the Nebraska experiment was doomed from the beginning. Mueller’s correct analysis of the changes that full deregulation would bring (Chapter 2) did not come about simply because full deregulation was not tried, and in a political environment it should not have been
expected. Only the inevitable gnawing of competition that escapes the tentacles of the regulators can bring about a more (economically) efficient telecommunications market. The above does not do justice to Mueller’s competent, non-technical and readable account of the Nebraska deregulation effort. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a blow-by-blow description of a serious, but failed, experiment in local deregulation in the USA. In fact, it goes much farther than the Nebraska situation, and the reader will come away from this book with a better understanding of the promise and problems facing the entire telecommunications industry in the USA, and elsewhere for that matter.
John T Wenders Department of Economics University of Idaho Moscow, ID, USA
Integration of mobile networks FIXED/MOBILE
TELECOMS
Integration of Services and Networks by Susan Ablett, Peter Aknai, Tim Harrabin and Graham Louth Analysis Briefing Report Series on European Telecommunications No 8, Cambridge, UK, 1993
This report was written to assess to what extent mobile telecommunication networks could work with fixed networks in an integrated way and to what extent they will remain separate services. The answer from the study is not clear, but two alternative scenarios illustrate likely developments. One scenario looks at integration of fixed and mobile telecommunications as a response to customer demand and market opportunities. At the end mobile network operators have to integrate these parts of the fixed network that need to support their own services. The consequence is that
Telecommunications
mobile operators become the nucleus around which separate networks develop and emerge in addition to existing fixed networks. The alternative scenario is one in which mobile operators are reintegrated into the dominant telecommunications operator, but the European states still have increased competition in mobile and in network services through the licensing of other integrated operators. While there are attempts in Europe to follow the second scenario, developments elsewhere (North America, Australia) indicate that separate networks are not usually established because of different technologies, but because they serve different clients. A more sensible policy would therefore allow integration of the first kind to take place so that through proper regulation integrated and fixed and mobile entrants can obtain a strong enough market share, picking up significant players in each of the European national territories. As Euro-
Policy 1994 Volume 18 Number
7
pean regulation will probably not allow this to happen before the end of the decade, the report in essence tries to discuss the likely outcome with this framework in mind. Chapter 1 outlines the key drivers of integration - market demand and commercial opportunities - and looks at forces operating in the market. Physical, functional and standardization aspects of integrating the fixed and mobile networks are discussed in Chapter 2. An assessment of the different strategies of the various actors is provided in Chapter 3 (that is, separate mobile network operators, integrated fixed and mobile service providers, independent network operators such as cable TV companies, electricity and railroad companies, etc, and the equipment manufacturers). The strengths and weaknesses of the different players are then discussed and reference is made to the recent North American experience to interpret these strategies in the light of recent empirical evidence (ie AT&T’s acquisition of McCaw and US West’s recent strategic partnership with Time Warner). Chapter 4 attempts to model the opportunities for mobile operators with or without integration and for different customer groups. This too is done in a scenario-type framework so it is very difficult to conclude anything from this aggregated analysis across different customer groups. It is for this reason that Chapter 5 ends with comparison of the two scenarios we discussed before, against the background of the likely European regulatory environment. This book is therefore largely a product of a market and technology assessment and a thought experiment. It sets out the relevant technical and economic issues but it does not link them enough to the European market side to yield stronger conclusions. As a consequence it is only a first step in making the analyst aware of what are the principal issues when one is trying to address the question of ‘integration or non-integration of mobile services by telecommunication services and networks’. The answer to this question requires a second and much more
565
Book reviewslCalendar
refined, detailed approach at the national level. While this may be a weakness as far as the European situation is concerned it nevertheless pro-
vides an analytical framework which can also be applied at national level and in other regions of the world.
Jiirgen Miiller Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union Geneva, Switzerland
Telecommunication
Calendar Event
Date and venue
The Twenty-second Telecommunications Conference
1994 l-3 October
Annual Policy Research
Solomons,
ICIN 94: 3rd International Conference on Intelligence in Networks
Broadcast
Cable and Satellite
Communications
India ‘94
Intelec 94
INTELCOM 94 - International Telecommunication Congress
France
Prem Behl, Exhibitions India, E-6 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India. Tel: +91 11462 2710/11, fax: +91 11463 3506
30 October-3
Intelec 94,48 rue de la Procession, 75724 Paris cedex 15, France. Tel: +33 144 49 60 60,fax: +33144496044
November Canada
Italy
1995 20-23 February
Convention
Secretariat du Colloque International sur L’Intelligence dans les Reseaux, ADERA, BP 196,33608 Pessac cedex, France. Tel: +33 56 15 1158, fax: +33 56 15 1160
25-28 October New Delhi. India
Turin,
Vancouver,
and
Dawn Higgins, Conference Coordinator, TPRC Inc, PO Box 19203, Washington DC 20036, USA. Tel: + 1202 452 9033
Prem Behl, Exhibitions India, E-6 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India. Tel: +91 11462 2710/11, fax: +9111463 3506
2-5 November
ISS ‘95 (XV International Switching Symposium): Advanced Switching Technologies for Universal Telecommunications at the Beginning the 21st Century Broadcasting
USA
25-28 October New Delhi, India
Vancouver,
International 95 (IBC 95)
MA,
11-13 October Bordeaux,
India ‘94
Inter Comm 95 Global Telecommunications Congress Exhibition
Details from
Canada
23-28 April Berlin,
Germany
of
8-12 September Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Arnaldo Armida, Adtech International, Via Balilla 51, 65100 Pescara, Italy. Tel: +392 29510991, fax: +392 2952 3941
Inter Comm 95,500-1190 Melville St, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6E 3Wl. Tel: + 1604 669 1090, fax: + 1604 682 5703 ISS ‘95 Secretariat, c/o VDE, Conference Organization, Stresemannallee 15, D60596 Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Tel: +49 69 63 08 831, fax: +49 69 96 3152 13
IBC Convention Office, Savoy Place, London WC2R OBL, UK. Tel: +44 (0)71 240 3839, fax: +44 (0)71497 3633
This calendar of events is based on information provided by the respective organizers and from secondary sources. Telecommunications Policy welcomes information on meetings suitable for listing in this section. Copy deadlines are three months ahead of cover dates and information should be sent to: ‘Telecommunications
Jordan 566
Policy Calendar’, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, Linacre Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK. Fax: +44 (0)865 314412. Telecommunications
House,
Policy 1994 Volume 18 Number 7