Europe says goodbye to "universal services" in telecommunications - and what comes next?

Josef Esser
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Josef Esser: Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 1997, vol. 3, issue 1, 86-97

Abstract: This essay looks at the European communications infrastructure, against the background of the gradual erosion of the public interest-based universal service which has been taking place for several years in the area of telephony. The causes and progress of this erosion and of the national and European policies are presented in three stages: the social state compromise from the post war period until the 1970s, the opposition of two visions (service-based competition versus facility-based competition) in the 1980s and the economic predominance of facility-based competition in the 1990s. Finally, when considering the possible political structure of a politically controlled and public interest-oriented communications infrastructure for the "information society", it is argued that, owing to the already advanced liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation, this is already virtually impossible and has very little political support.

Date: 1997
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:3:y:1997:i:1:p:86-97

DOI: 10.1177/102425899700300107

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