Governments often regulate prices for public utilities. As telecommunication services markets have been opened to competition, new ways had to be found to regulate prices of the former monopoly carriers.

The avoidance of monopoly rents and the need to ensure the continuity and quality of supply have, historically, been among the key drivers for the creation of new trade routes. In the field of telecommunications, for much of the past century, there has been little scope for achieving either of...

In many OECD countries, a primary longer term issue is how to provide universal service in the new competitive environment where voice is ubiquitous and cheap, voice revenues low and where voice has become just one of many applications provided on networks.

Since the end of the 1980s, the increasing globalisation of corporate activities (in both the manufacturing and service sectors) in OECD Member countries has spilled over into the telecommunication sector, thus creating fundamental changes in the paradigm of international telecommunication...