Telecommunications in Brazil

Article 21, paragraph XI of the Brazilian Federal Constitution determines that telecommunication services must be exploited through a government controlled monopoly. Accordingly, all public telecommunication services are exploited by the Brazilian Telecommunications Company (Telebras). Telebras is the holding company of the so-called Sistema Telebras (Telebras System) consisting of 27 state based operating companies (OCs) and of EMBRATEL (Brazilian Telecom Enterprise), in charge of interstate connections and of the international gateway. The Federal law of 1972 that created Telebras also granted it power to exploit the services through its controlled or associate companies. Telebras owns over 97 percent of all telephone lines in the country. The remaining 3 percent are exploited by a private company (an exception foreseen in the Constitution) and two municipal companies. The newly inaugurated federal administration has submitted to the Congress a revised institutional model for the country, which includes the breakup of the state monopoly in telecommunications. The article discusses particularities regarding the future trends of the new approach to be enforced for the exploitation of telecommunication services and technology, and the evolution of the country's telecommunication networks     

Telecommunications in Brazil: the role of the private sector

Private investors are not currently active in Brazil's public service networks, but there are opportunities for the participation of private capital in many other niches of the telecommunications field. At this moment the Brazilian Administration cannot accept the participation of private investors in the public service networks and that studies will be carried out only after the Congress approves the necessary change of one article in the Constitution. However, today there is a large space for the participation of private capital in many other niches of the telecommunications field     

Acquisition of telecommunications products and services: anexamination of inter-sector differences

Three important sectors-public administration, financial services, and manufacturing-are compared in this study with respect to their telecommunications acquisition practices. The three sectors are compared on a number of variables pertaining to the role and management of telecommunications technology, the process of acquiring telecommunications technology, and the outcome of this process. Findings indicate that information technology plays a more important role in the service-oriented sectors than in manufacturing. The acquisition process for telecommunications appears to be more elaborate in the public sector organizations than in private firms. In a relative sense, public sector and financial service organizations are more likely to opt for service solutions for their telecommunications needs as compared to manufacturing organizations that rely mainly on equipment-based solutions     

Japan telecommunications at the crossroads

Changes introduced into telecommunications by digital technology since 1985, (when the Japanese Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp. was turned from a Government-owned monopoly to a private company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT)) have led to a call for completely revamped approach. The main concern is to solve the problems of unequal competitive conditions existing between new common carriers and a single dominant carrier. The nature of the abovementioned changes is examined, and a proposal to split NTT into one local telephone company and one toll company is discussed, focusing on its possible effects     

Data communications: where regulators clash with reality

Exponential advances in telecommunications and computer technology are driving the United States and the world into the information age, an age of instantaneous and massive communication all over the world. The rapid pace of new technology has made the old concept of the franchised telephone monopoly obsolete-an obsolescence confirmed and hastened by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. However, the new environment has also made traditional modes of telecommunications regulation obsolete. In this article, the authors argue that, in many key areas, regulators are actually standing in the way of delivery of the information age to many Americans. Traditional regulation has long controlled such key aspects of a regulated telephone company's operations as the introduction of new services and the price at which services must be offered to the public. These regulations, as applied to the last remaining heavily regulated telecommunications firms, the local exchange carriers, have reached the point where they are now counterproductive and anti-investment. Particularly in the world of data communications, where everything is new, regulators should strive to reduce regulatory burdens in order that the market forces which new technologies are unleashing can bring benefits to the entire public     

MAN about town

Data networks are fast outgrowing the limitations of existing local area networks standards, creating the demand for an efficient means of connecting data networks over the public telecommunications network. Here, the author shows how, by extending the technology of the local area network from the private to the public domain, metropolitan area networks (MANs) are transforming the capabilities of geographically dispersed computer systems     

Le service universel quelle valeur? quel coût? quel financement?

The opening up to competition of public utilities, such as telecommunications, raises the issue of maintaining and financing the universal service obligation, previously ensured by a monopoly. In this paper, a simple model deals with a welfare and cost analysis of the universal service. It compares two valuations of the private cost, i.e. the reduction of the operator profit: the avoidable cost and the budgetary compensation. Under the assumptions of the model, the budgetary compensation is higher than the avoidable cost. The paper scrutinizes different competitive situations. If an entrant can skim up the profitable users without a better technology, the final situation is economically inefficient as a result of the splitting of infrastructure, even though the incumbent gets a compensation. When a technological advantage makes entry desirable, network duplication can be avoided through interconnection and access charges. In order to cover the deficit of the universal service operator, an universal service fund has to be set up in addition to access charges.     

Demand for data communications

The published facts about traditional data communications are assembled, with a view to combining this information with similar information about voice and video, to obtain an overall view of telecommunications traffic and revenues. The data presented are in the form of national aggregates. The information is used to estimate public and private network data communication revenues for the next five years     

Telecommunications in Argentina

At the beginning of the '90s Argentina change its telecommunications model, closing an almost 45-year period in which the dominant concept was a state telecommunications monopoly with overlapped regulatory and provision functions. The changed was focused on a domestic version of the combine concepts of deregulation and demonopolization. A comparative analysis of the previous and present telecommunications model is presented and a trend-based forecast is outlined     

Evolution of telecommunications in Russia

The current status of Russia's telecommunications infrastructure does not correspond to the country's increasing demands. The creation of a commercial digital overlay network is apparently the only possible solution to provide modern telecommunications services. This article describes the following aspects of the evolution of telecommunications in Russia: a classification of the main specific features of the existing telecommunications networks; an analysis of the telecommunications statistics and forecasting of the main characteristics; likely future scenarios of the evolving telecommunications system; and the main telecommunications projects that will be carried out in the nearest future. Until now, the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a unique system providing basic dialogue services (speech, data transmission, etc.), was the single solution to provide national telecommunications. For this reason, we first describe the main features of the Russian national PSTN     

网络融合背景下商业模式盈利探讨

互联网业务与通信网的结合,打破了传统电信运营商对业务的垄断,并推动电信业务从基本生活消费品向时尚与娱乐消费品转变,电信产业也将从“技术驱动”逐步演变为“市场驱动”和“用户需求驱动”。对互联网和电信网两者已有的商业模式进行阐述,结合网络融合大背景,提出新环境下商业模式发展思路的几个要点并加以分析,以求为企业在网络融合大背景下更好运营提供相关建议。     

Equal Access to Result in Better Service,More Innovation and Lower Costs

Local equal access—the ability to choose among local carriers versus only having the ability to use the monopoly supplier—will have far-reaching implications for the US telecommunications infrastructure.     

Funding the future telecommunications infrastructure

The author develops the thesis that the logical system for information transport is the existing telecommunications network. He discusses changes in technology and the marketplace and the importance of the telecommunications infrastructure. He considers who will meet future customer needs and when. He examines three alternatives for funding the future telecommunications infrastructure: the continuation of current rate-of-return regulation, public funding, and regulatory change. He notes positive steps that have already been taken forward market-based regulatory reform     

A financial model of cable television with a simulation analysis of the 1993 rate regulations

As an illustration of how a widely accepted financial analysis format can be developed into a simulation tool to investigate economic issues for telecommunications systems, a pro forma cash flow model of cable television is developed using regression analysis of market demand and operating costs, and engineering analysis of capital costs. The model can be used to simulate financial performance for a cable television system to investigate the impact of different market conditions, system or service configurations, and pricing structures. Results of some model simulations indicate that cable systems significantly benefit from higher consumer density, benefit somewhat from system size, and may have some monopoly power with regard to price. Large urban systems seem to be favored by the FCC's 1993 benchmark prices.     

Une exploration de nouveaux équilibres du marché des télécommunications

The economy of telecommunications is presently characterized by differentiation of services. This paper explores this differentiation in different institutionnal situations starting from very simple but realistic assumptions. It is established that the most efficient situation should associate a technical monopoly of the network with a competitive supply of services.     

加拿大电信管制的经验及对我国的启示

分析电信业在破除垄断．引入竞争后电信管制中广泛存在的一般竞争管制与电信行业管制之间对电信经营活动管辖权存在的冲突与协调这一现象。介绍了加拿大的富有特色的做法及解决模式。结合我国现阶段实际,以推进我国电信业发展,建立完善的电信竞争政策执行机制为目标．提出我国解决这一问题可采取的对策。     

The Internet and the community in Brazil: background, issues, andoptions

The Internet in Brazil is experiencing explosive growth. Spawned by a newsmedia-driven public interest which began in early 1994, this growth has taken unique paths. In a country where the entire data communications and telephone services infrastructure is under a state monopoly, Internet services to final users are scattered through hundreds of private providers of all sizes, while Internet backbones operated by transnational companies are being installed to compete with a state-funded backbone and a state-owned backbone. This article describes nongovernmental networking activity and how it evolved from a purely academic network to one serving a much larger public     

Telecommunications aspects of intelligent buildings

The role of the telecommunications systems in intelligent building telecommunication technology is described, focusing on trends in Japan. The capabilities of private branch exchanges (PBXs) are examined, local area networks (LANs) are considered, and possible architectures for a backbone network are described. The building wiring issue is addressed, stressing the need for a topology accommodating ISDN and all branch LAN needs. The interfacing of the telecommunications systems with the building automation and office automation systems is briefly discussed     

我国的电信业务市场与监督管理

１９９８年,我国的电信管理体制进行了全面的改革,实现了政企分开、邮电分营。信息产业部本着破除垄断、保护竞争、促进发展的原则,提出了建立我国竞争性电信市场架构的初步设想,在各个电信业务领域实行公平、有序、充分的竞争。同时,信息产业部将作为政府部门,加强对电信和信息服务业务市场的行政监管。     

Telecommunications in Russia

National telecommunications has undergone significant changes. Some of these changes and the main principles of the national telecommunications system are described. First the milestones of the previous years are considered. Afterward, the structure of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the basis of national telecommunications, is presented. We then deal with statistics and forecasting. Two tables present the development of the main telecommunication networks. A third table allows us to compare telecommunications development in the republics of the former USSR. Three figures show the forecasts of the main indexes of future telecommunications. General evolution tendencies inherent in Russian telecommunications are described next, including new technologies and services. One example related to modern equipment application is described. Finally, we deal with aspects of Russian telecommunications liberalization