Noam's book is the first major attempt to address the complicated economic and public policy issues of telecommunications in Europe. He provides a thorough discussion of the evolution of central telephone networks, equipment supply, new value-added networks, and new telecommunications-related services in a detailed country-by-country analysis.

This compilation of original papers selected from the 19th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics and authored by an international cast of economists, lawyers, regulators and industry practitioners addresses perhaps the most significant problem that has ever faced the postal sector - electronic competition from information and communication technologies (ICT). This has increased significantly over the last few years with a consequent serious drop in mail volume. All postal services have been hard hit by ICT, but probably the hardest hit is the United States Postal Service, which has lost almost a quarter of its mail volume since 2007. The loss of mail volume has a devastating effect on scale economies, which now work against post offices, forcing up their unit costs. Strategies to stem the loss in volume include non-linear pricing or volume discounts, increased efficiency and the development of new products. This loss of mail volume from ICT is one of a number of current problems addressed in this volume. The Universal Service Obligation (USO) continues to be a leading issue and concern that ICT undermines postal services ability to finance the USO is discussed. The importance of measuring and forecasting demand and costs take on even greater importance as ICT undermines the foundations of the postal business. This thought provoking book brings to bear new analyses of the most serious threat post offices have ever faced and raises fundamental questions as to the future of mail. Multi-Modal Competition and the Future of Mail is an ideal resource for students, researchers in regulation and competition law, postal administrations, policy makers, consulting firms and regulatory bodies.

"John Ilhan: A Crazy Life" tells the fascinating story of John Ilhan -- a working-class immigrant who overcame incredible odds to become one of the richest men in Australia. Founder of phenomenally successful mobile telephone company Crazy John's, Ilhan tragically passed away in 2007 at the age of forty-two.

As told through the eyes of his family, friends and colleagues, this poignant biography reveals new insights into the man behind Crazy John's, the wife and four children he left behind and his David and Goliath battle with Telstra.

Ilhan's inspirational journey shows how self-belief, passion and a never-say-die attitude can see you achieve your dreams.

"When you share your life with a true achiever it's hard to fully comprehend the impact they can have on the broader community. Unfortunately for my family, I learned about that impact the day John passed away."
--Patricia Ilhan, co-founder, Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation

"When John passed away we lost a truly wonderful person who was a giant at everything he did and a truly free spirit. The amazing thing was he'd only just started to make his mark on the wider community."
--Brendan Fleiter, Chief Executive Officer, Crazy John's

..".he was a migrant from Turkey who grew up in Broadmeadows and rose to a very senior position in our community. To my mind John lived until he was 100; he just did it in forty-two years."
--Eddie McGuire, President, Collingwood Football Club

This compilation of original essays by an international cast of top scholars addresses some of the major issues now facing postal and delivery services throughout the world. The European Commission and member states wrestle with the problem of how to implement the scheduled liberalization of these sectors and maintain the universal service obligation while the United States Postal Service is coming to terms with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. In addition, the book addresses the impact of electronic competition as well as other problems facing the field. The contributors analyze pressing issues such as access to infrastructure and service elements, changes in the national regulations of EU countries, forecasting mail volumes and the evolving market environment, issues surrounding universal service and others.Undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in regulation and public sector economics along with industry professionals will find this volume informative and useful.

In an increasingly interconnected world, "Communication Networks Economy" provides the rational understanding necessary to provide universal access to communication means in an efficient way. This book presents the principal elements of the economics of a network as it stands today, taking into account experiences of technicians in the field. The author gives a simplified picture of the current situation in terms of structures and architecture of a network, bearing in mind the necessary quality of service and the profitability of investments, accompanied by references to recent economic works. An overview is given on the general themes of regulation and tariff principles, and the relations between supply and demand, from the perspectives of professional and residential users and network operators. Different aspects of the present situations of networks and the incidence of the Internet on the economy are also presented. In conclusion, the reader will obtain an overview of the most significant issues likely to influence the economics of communications networks as they are today.

Call centers have come, in the last three decades, to define the interaction between corporations, governments, and other institutions and their respective customers, citizens, and members. The offshoring and outsourcing of call center employment, part of the larger information technology and information-technology-enabled services sectors, continues to be a growing practice amongst governments and corporations in their attempts at controlling costs and providing new services. While incredible advances in technology have permitted the use of distant and "offshore" labor forces, the grander reshaping of an international political economy of communications has allowed for the acceleration of these processes. New and established labor unions have responded to these changes in the global regimes of work by seeking to organize call center workers. These efforts have been assisted by a range of forces, not least of which is the condition of work itself, but also attempts by global union federations to build a bridge between international unionism and local organizing campaigns in the Global South and Global North. Through an examination of trade union interventions in the call center industries located in Canada and India, this book contributes to research on post-industrial employment by using political economy as a juncture between development studies, the sociology of work, and labor studies.

Bringing together contributions from high level EU officials and prominent academic economists on one of the most exciting issues in industrial economics, this timely book aims to promote dialogue between policy and academic research, and provides a unique forum for debate on the new European regulatory framework in telecommunications. Contributing to a convergence of legal and economic approaches, The Economics of Antitrust and Regulation in Telecommunications integrates economic theory into current EU antitrust policy within the sector. The book addresses the role of competition and regulatory policies on a number of key issues in telecommunications, such as market definition, collective dominance, access to networks, and allocation of scarce resources. A must-read for anyone connected to the telecommunications sector, this book will appeal to anyone interested in European competition policy and regulation, from economic scholars and industry professionals to policymakers and policy analysts.

Focusing on the European telecommunications sector, which holds a vital strategic position in an economy that relies on information-processing activities, this book highlights the largely untapped skills and potential contribution women employees can make to total quality programmes. It explains how the principle of equality-driven total quality can be extended to encompass the full diversity of a workforce, and how the principles involved can be applied to other industrial sectors.

The history of the telegraph - the men and women who made it - and its relevance to the current Internet debate Beginning with the Abbe Nollet's famous experiment of 1746, when he successfully demonstrated that electricity could pass from one end to the other of a chain of two hundred monks, Tom Standage tells the story of the spread of the telegraph and its transformation of the Victorian world. The telegraph was greeted by all the same concerns, hype, social panic and excitement that now surround the Internet, and Standage provides both a fascinating insight into the past and a context in which to think rather differently of today's concerns. Standage has a wonderful prose style and an excellent eye for the telling and engaging story. Popular history at its best.

This book examines the extensive changes in markets, technologies and value chains that telecommunication companies are currently confronted with. It analyzes the crossroads they have reached and the choices that now need to be made - to be a bit pipe or a trendsetter of digitalization. Based on an analysis of the key challenges for telcos, the book derives future market scenarios and puts forward recommendations for how they can successfully position themselves. It proposes a framework based on seven "levers," which addresses concrete measures in each step of the value chain, ranging from technology, IT and processes, to innovation, marketing and sales issues. The book discusses the current challenges and provides both general recommendations and concrete solutions. Respected experts illustrate innovative strategic and technical trends and provide insights gained in real-life transformation projects. Recent developments in the areas of regulation, product development, competition between over-the-top (OTT) providers and telcos, as well as technical innovations like 5G, SDN/NFV, LEO satellites and MEC are discussed. Accordingly, practitioners, managers and researchers alike will benefit from the book's wealth of examples and up-to-date insights.

Originally published in 1992 this book charts the global restructuring of telecommunications industries away from the monopoly structures of the past towards increased competition, deregulation and privatization. The book's authors are international policy-makers and scholars, who examine the regulatory environment within a theoretical and historical context. The book looks at the roots of regulatory and legislative changes by discussing individually the countries at the forefront of the revolution: the UK, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. It examines the impact of new technology for consequences of change in trade and government policies.

"…take on network design and performance issues and win!" Building on the first edition’s success, this second edition includes a substantial amount of new material, particularly to reflect the growth in the importance of traffic engineering for IP. Since the publication of the first edition there has been considerable work in the IP community to make the technology QoS aware. Essentially the techniques and mechanisms required to do this are generic, but are often disguised by the use of confusing jargon. The authors keep things intuitive and easy to understand, offering a simple and imaginative approach to analytical techniques and providing a fundamental grasp of queueing methods for key switching, buffering, and traffic control functions. Armed with this second edition, engineers and students will be able to tackle the network design and performance issues of today’s - and tomorrow’s - technologies … with confidence! Features include:

• Essentials of IP and ATM performance evaluation using analysis and simulation
• Key formulas for traffic and queueing behaviour
• Practical examples, graphs and tables for design and dimensioning
• Introduction to simulation, including accelerated techniques

• Four chapters dedicated to IP queueing, resource reservation, buffer management and self-similar traffic
• Excess-rate analysis fully explained - leading to many simple-to-use solutions for both IP and ATM
• Summary chapter of traffic issues and solutions, giving a route map to all formulas, their parameters, usage and location
• An accompanying website featuring all the formulas in MathCAD files so you can try them out for yourself!

Since 2000, there has been an ideologically driven experiment carried out in the UK to change the postal service provided by Royal Mail, to one beholden to the mantra of competition, profit and privatisation. This is the story of those in the frontline of change.

In 2011 the Philippines surpassed India to become what the New York Times referred to as "the world's capital of call centers." By the end of 2015 the Philippine call center industry employed over one million people and generated twenty-two billion dollars in revenue. In A Nation on the Line Jan M. Padios examines this massive industry in the context of globalization, race, gender, transnationalism, and postcolonialism, outlining how it has become a significant site of efforts to redefine Filipino identity and culture, the Philippine nation-state, and the value of Filipino labor. She also chronicles the many contradictory effects of call center work on Filipino identity, family, consumer culture, and sexual politics. As Padios demonstrates, the critical question of call centers does not merely expose the logic of transnational capitalism and the legacies of colonialism; it also problematizes the process of nation-building and peoplehood in the early twenty-first century.

In 2011 the Philippines surpassed India to become what the New York Times referred to as "the world's capital of call centers." By the end of 2015 the Philippine call center industry employed over one million people and generated twenty-two billion dollars in revenue. In A Nation on the Line Jan M. Padios examines this massive industry in the context of globalization, race, gender, transnationalism, and postcolonialism, outlining how it has become a significant site of efforts to redefine Filipino identity and culture, the Philippine nation-state, and the value of Filipino labor. She also chronicles the many contradictory effects of call center work on Filipino identity, family, consumer culture, and sexual politics. As Padios demonstrates, the critical question of call centers does not merely expose the logic of transnational capitalism and the legacies of colonialism; it also problematizes the process of nation-building and peoplehood in the early twenty-first century.

Telecommunications media include radio, cable, satellite services, multimedia, the Internet, cable TV, telephony, broadcast radio and TV. This book deals with the policies, laws, impact and fast-moving developments in a field which impacts the world in a multitude of ways - not all of which are benign. This book presents the latest research in the field. Topics discussed in this book include telemarketing and the implementation of the Do Not Call Registry; mobile telephones and motor vehicle operation; internet and the workforce; models in wireless telecommunications; and society and media industries.

This compilation of original essays by an international cast of economists, regulators and industry practitioners analyzes some of the major issues now facing postal and delivery services throughout the world as competition from information and communication technologies (ICT) has increased. Competition has become increasingly important in the postal sector for some time in the form of alternative entrants providing mail delivery. However, the competition from ICT in the form of email and instant messaging, the Internet, Facebook and other forms of social networking and portable wireless devices such as the iPad and Kindle may be even more significant. Mail volumes are falling and the economies of scale that have made possible daily deliveries to every address are being eroded. This book assesses volume these declines resulting from this so-called `eSubstituion' and looks at the ways the postal sector can adapt to the rapid changes resulting from ICT. The impact of electronic invoicing on transactions mail, and the impact on bulk mail of electronic forms of advertising are examined. Strategies, including pricing and access policies, are discussed in the context of the increasing impact of ICT. A rethinking of the role of mail in an electronic age is taking place and this book provides the cutting-edge of this rethinking and the attempts of POs to reinvent themselves while continuing to meet the public's expectation of continuing ubiquitous daily deliveries of traditional mail products. Undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in regulation, competition law, innovation and public sector economics along with institutional libraries and industry professionals will find this volume informative and useful.

The postal and delivery sector has been the subject of considerable interest in recent years. This book brings together a number of contributions directed at understanding developments in the field of postal reform. The authors review the experience and plans of individual countries to provide some perspective on the problems faced in the area and the varied approaches being taken to address them. They also review key elements of policy and strategy that are important in this debate. Gradual change occurred throughout the world's postal systems during the 1990s and into the 21st century. Regulatory and legal developments, together with advances in micro-electronics, fiber optics, and electronic substitution, continue to have a major impact on the sector. Regulatory changes have been most visible in Europe with the approval of the 3rd Postal Directive for the European Union in 2008. However, Europe has not been alone in facing these changes. Legislators in the US have also attempted to respond to changes in postal markets with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Similar trends toward restructuring and reform of the sector are evident in other countries as well. This comprehensive book analyzes and describes the forces underlying these changes, the nature of the responses to them at national and regional levels, and some of the major challenges that postal operators, postal customers, and regulators are likely to encounter in the future. Scholars and students of regulation in general and those specifically interested in the postal and delivery sector will find this volume invaluable, as will policymakers and professionals within the industry.

" From Iron Fist to Invisible Hand" uses telecommunications policy as a window to examine major contradictions in China's growth as an economic and political superpower. While China policy analysts wonder why the government occasionally restrains growth and raises prices, technologists marvel at how the telecommunications industry continues to grow enormously despite constraints and unpredictability in the market. Frustration is pervasive in the business environment, where regulations are constantly changing. This book provides six policy-focused case studies, each centered on a question with implications for telecome stakeholders, such as: Who is the regulator?Who are the regulated? Which foreigners can enter China, thereby regulating wholesale prices, setting consumer prices, and introducing Internet and innovative technologies? These cases explain the government's liberal and conservative approach toward reform, the policies that both promote and constrain business, and the major hurdles that lie ahead in telecommunications reform.

This timely volume provides a comprehensive view of the economic and social research frontiers of the telecommunications and information activities in the Information Age. New technologies and deregulation characterize this rapidly growing sector, which is assuming an increasingly international character. These changes are generating a wide range of local, regional and international policy issues. An international group drawn from research, industry and policy communities outline the important frontiers on which research efforts should focus. The book emphasizes the need for the implementation of such economic and social research.

Many of us may not realize that what we now call snail mail was once just as revolutionary as e-mail and text messages are today. As David M. Henkin argues in "The Postal Age," a burgeoning postal network initiated major cultural shifts during the nineteenth century, laying the foundation for the interconnectedness that now defines our ever-evolving world of telecommunications.
This fascinating history traces these shifts from their beginnings in the mid-1800s, when cheaper postage, mass literacy, and migration combined to make the long-established postal service a more integral and viable part of everyday life. Through original correspondence and public discussions from the time period, Henkin tells the story of how Americans adjusted to a new world of long-distance correspondence, crowded post offices, junk mail, valentines, and dead letters. Throughout, "The Postal Age" paints a vibrant picture of a society where possibilities proliferated for personal and impersonal communications.
""The Postal Age" is engagingly written, rich with anecdotes and observations that dramatize and illuminate the manifold facets of 'postal culture' in the antebellum United States. . . . a nuanced view of the complicated relationships between technologies and systems and social forms. "The Postal Age" is a major contribution to American social history and to the history of communications in general."--Geoffrey Nunberg, author of "Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Controversial Times"

Ireland is abuzz with telecommunications. Walk up any street from Dublin to Dingle and every second person is head-down in their mobile phone. Everywhere we are bombarded with deals for fibre-this and wireless-that. The nation's software industry includes nine of the world's top ten tech firms and generates EURO50 billion in annual exports. Sitting silently around Dublin is a necklace of unmarked data centres, storing everything from airline bookings to our personal videos of cute cats. Even more anonymous are the 17 underwater cables stretching out from the coastline, carrying text messages, phone calls and internet data to and from the rest of the world. Across the country a programme to connect over half a million rural homes to the internet by fibre is rolling out. And yet it wasn't so long ago that Ireland was a largely agrarian society with a two-year waiting list just to get a landline phone installed. How did we get from that old-world Ireland to this modern super-connected one? Connecting a Nation tells this story - a story not just of cables, exchanges, SIM cards and broadband but of how telecommunications has played a pivotal role in the development of the country from 1852 to the present. Telecommunications is intimately bound up with politics and economics, with place and people. Connecting a Nation illustrates these interconnections by drawing on personal stories, from the first day of work for an operator at Dublin's new telephone exchange in 1881, via the painful process of getting a phone installed in the 1970s, to the Ryanair website created by two students that ignited the digital revolution in Ireland. Connecting the past to the present, Connecting a Nation offers an insider's perspective on how the decisions of the past continue to shape who we are as individuals - and as a nation.

The completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph in 1861 completed telegraphy's mile-by-mile trek across the West. In addition to linking the coasts, the telegraph represented an extraordinary American effort in many fields of endeavor to know, act upon, and control a continent. Merging new research with bold interpretation, James Schwoch details the unexplored dimensions of the frontier telegraph and its impact. The westward spread of telegraphy entailed encounters with environments that challenged Americans to acquire knowledge of natural history, climate, and a host of other fields. Telegraph codes and ciphers, meanwhile, became important political, military, and economic secrets. Schwoch shows how the government's use of commercial networks drove a relationship between the two sectors that served increasingly expansionist aims. He also reveals the telegraph's role in securing high ground and encouraging surveillance. Both became vital aspects of the American effort to contain, and conquer, the West's indigenous peoples—and part of a historical arc of concerns about privacy, data gathering, and surveillance that remains pertinent today. Entertaining and enlightening, Wired into Nature explores an unknown history of the West.

How does a telecommunications company function when its right hand often doesn't know what its left hand is doing? How do rapidly expanding, interdisciplinary organizations hold together and perform their knowledge work? In this book, Clay Spinuzzi draws on two warring theories of work activity - activity theory and actor-network theory - to examine the networks of activity that make a telecommunications company work and thrive. In doing so, Spinuzzi calls a truce between the two theories, bringing them to the negotiating table to parley about work. Specifically, about net work: the coordinative work that connects, coordinates, and stabilizes polycontextual work activities. To develop this uneasy dialogue, Spinuzzi examines the texts, trades, and technologies at play at Telecorp, both historically and empirically. Drawing on both theories, Spinuzzi provides new insights into how net work actually works and how our theories and research methods can be extended to better understand it.