Chapter 4 of Global Information Technology Report (pp. 71-86)

The chapter identifies 4 recent trends in telephone service:

1.  Fixed-mobile substitution
2.  Competition in the fixed access market
3.  VoIP technology
4.  Broadband availability

These trends are briefly defined in Figure 2.
For each trend, the authors discuss the ecomomic nature of the trend,
and later point out the role of (national) regulation.

Finally, the chapter concludes with 4 points of advice (Figure 12).

Some unusual terminology used in chapter:
  incumbent, attacker, enterprise, PSTN (public switched telephone network),
  early adopter, LLU (local loop unbundling, i.e. local phone competition)

Discussion questions:
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1.  Which of the trends has affected you the most?

2.  Can you give an example of how 2 or more of the 4 trends are
interrelated?  (e.g. one trend makes another one possible)

3.  What factors account for mobile access gaining ground over land-line
telephone access?  Which European countries have seen the greatest
leap away from fixed to mobile telephone service?

4.  The chapter points out that traditional fixed-access telephone
companies have lost little (5%) of their customers to competition.
So, why is there concern over significant loss of revenue?

5.  Suppose we wanted to calculate how much money can be saved if
people switched their telephone service to VoIP.  What information
or assumptions would we need to take into consideration?

6.  What factors are limiting the growth of broadband access?
Why do so many households in South Korea have broadband?


7.  Traditional or incumbent fixed-line companies have customarily
built a country's telecommunications infrastructure, and have the
expertise to continue.  However, the companies themselves are
struggling financially because of stagnant increases in market share.
What can regulators (governments, public service commissions) do to help?

8.  How can regulators foster the growth of VoIP and broadband?

9.  What is the overall message of the chapter?  Who should be paying
the most attention to its conclusions?  Are there key mistakes or pitfalls
that need to be avoided?