Telecommunications and politics

By the twenty-first century, the telephone network will be transformed into a high-speed telecommunications infrastructure carrying information of every description - voice, data, words, colour images, high-definition television, manufacturing designs - in the digital form recognised by computers. This technological revolution is connected to a shift from mass production to a system of flexible production, in which far-flung corporate activities are being integrated into digital networks of information and control. The outcome of the telecommunications revolution is being decided by a political contest between two powerful interest groups. National coalitions of established telephone interests are trying to defend the traditional monopoly, and a new transnational alliance of electronics companies and corporate users is seeking to open up telecommunications to competition. From the perspective of comparative political economy, Telecommunications and Politics claims that an understanding of the conditions which led to the rise of national telephone monopolies in the past helps to recognise the variety of political options in the present. It argues for a middle way between monopoly and competition: a decentralised alternative consisting of regional companies interconnected with independent long-distance carriers.