Monopoly in telecommunications: The case of Greece

The main point of this paper is that politicians use the telecommunications industry as a tool for the implementation of social policy.In order to do this they need to control it. They control the industry by legislating the market as a monopoly.This means that politicians prohibit entry in this market. The usual justification behind this is that this market is a natural monopoly and it would be better to protect it.These arguments stand only for the case of a market which is a natural monopoly. In our historical analysis we found nothing to support the claim that the telecommunications industry is a natural monopoly. On the contrary, in any time, any place where competition was allowed it occurred. Moreover, it fostered both technological change and better service.In the case of Greece the telecommunications industry followed exactly this pattern. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)