This paper reviews the application of national antitrust law and the implementation of the European Union's telecommunications directives to the markets in the United Kingdom, against the declared policy objective of raising national competitiveness. It illustrates the complexity of the systems...

Survey data for the adoption of broadband and the Internet point to significant regional variations. While there continues to be growth at the UK level, the adoption of broadband in Scotland appears to have stalled, in contrast to the three other nations. Internet adoption shows a similar...

This paper reviews the application of national antitrust law and the implementation of the European Union’s telecommunications directives to the markets in the United Kingdom, against the declared policy objective of raising national competitiveness. It illustrates the complexity of the...

The UK was one of the first countries to privatise its telecommunications operator and to introduce competition. As part of that process it created its first regulator, the Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL), later replaced by the Office of Communications (OFCOM). Around these are a vast and...

The manufacture of telecommunications equipment in the United Kingdom dates back to the 1880s. With the municipalisation and eventual nationalisation of telecommunications, it was the Post Office that had responsibility for research and development of new systems until the 1980s. After the...

This paper compares and contrasts the processes used by the European, United Kingdom and Scottish parliaments in considering broadband policies, legislation, regulatory systems and outcomes, within a complex triple-tiered governance system. Broadband is of increasing importance due to the...

Opinion polls suggest Scotland will reject independence, opening the way to a review of economic governance in the United Kingdom, a complex quasi-federal, asymmetric system of administrations and parliaments, the result of ad hoc changes over decades. One party wants telecommunications...

In the autumn of 2014 the residents of Scotland, but not other parts of the UK, will vote on whether to leave the UK to become a separate state, with a positive vote leading to an independent parliament being elected in 2016. It would remain within the EU and in compliance with its acquis...