After decades of liberalization of the telecommunications industry around the world and technological convergence that allows for increasing competition, sector-specific regulation of telecommunications has been on the decline. As a result, the telecommunications industry stands in the middle of a debate that calls for either a total deregulation of access to broadband infrastructures or a separation of infrastructure from service delivery. This book proposes new approaches to dealing with the current and future issues of regulation of telecommunication markets on both a regional and a global scale.This volume represents a valuable compendium of ideas regarding global trends in the telecommunications industry that focus on market and regulatory issues and company strategies. With an international cast of contributors, Regulation and the Evolution of the Global Telecommunications Industry also provides insight into topics including: mobile Internet development, structural function and separation, global experiences with next generation networks, technology convergence and the role of regulation, and the regulatory impact on the balance between static and dynamic efficiencies. The empirical evidence and experiences presented here illustrate the diversity of thoughts and research that characterize this important area of academic and business research. Thus, it will be a critical reference for scholars and students of regulatory economics, policy and finance and researchers and administrators of the telecom industry.

What roles can and should governments play in communication policymaking? How are communication policies related to welfare politics? With the rapid globalization of commerce and culture and the increasing recognition of information as an economic resource, the grounds for defending the welfare state have shifted. Communication policy is now more widely understood as social policy. Communication, Citizenship, and Social Policy examines issues of communication technology, neoliberal economic policies, public service media, media access, social movements and political communication, the geography of communication, and global media development and policy, among others, and shows how progressive policymakers must use these bases to confront more directly the debates on contemporary welfare theory and politics.