In Canada we are already starting to see the cost of Long Distance service
fall. However, the issue of what happens to those areas (such as Cape
Breton and other rural and remote parts of the country) which have
benefitted from a regulatory regime which imposed a uniform tariff
structure (at least provincially) and a cross-subsidization of services.
That shoe has yet to drop and when it does, it could be a resounding thud
with substantial impacts on fledgling efforts to re-position
rural/resource based economies towards ICT based opportunities.
Those who are already competitively better favoured in metropolitan areas
will have the additional advantage of having access to highly competitive
telecom rates. While those in outlying communities/regions/countries will
find themselves at a further disadvantage.
While the overall trend may be lower rates for everyone, what will be
important competitively will be how the rate structure settles and
distributes access costs geographically/socially.
Mike Gurstein
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 09:43:38 -0500
From: Marita Moll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Universal Access Canada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: WTO sagreement on telecoms
>Did your phone costs drop yesterday?
>
>====================================
>BBC london Wednesday, February 4, 1998 Published at 20:29 GMT
>
> World telecom trade opened up
>
> Telecoms costs are likely to fall as a result of the WTO agreement
>
> The World Trade Organisation agreement to liberalise international
> trade in telecommunications services comes into effect on Thursday,
> 5th February. It has taken three years of negotiations to reach the
> agreement, which will cover not only voice telephony, but also
> telexes, facsimiles, mobile telephones, and satellite communications.
> With over 72 countries signed up to the accord, and a market worth
> several hundreds of billions of dollars, our business correspondent
> Joe Morgan has been looking at what changes individuals and
> organisations can expect.
>
> Global telephony is expanding at exponential rates - in 1996 the
> number of telephone lines criss-crossing the globe jumped from 690
> million to over 740 million. But there's still a huge potential for
> further growth, and for the price cuts the World Trade Organisation
> hopes to see. John Matthews, a telecoms consultant with Ovum, believes
> the WTO accord will have its greatest effect in the developing world.
>
> "It liberalises perhaps the most important industrial area of the 21st
> century, which is a pretty major achievement. The biggest impact will
> probably be in the developing countries. Telecoms prices there are
> extraordinarily high - it's used by governments as a source of revenue
> and as a source of foreign exchange, and in those countries you are
> likely to see prices coming down very dramatically as a result of this
> agreement."
>
> State-owned monopolies are likely to face the new challenge of private
> sector competition, and jobs may be lost. When British Telecom was
> privatised in 1984, its workforce dropped from 240,000 to 100,000.
> Telephone bills everywhere are set to drop by in some cases as much as
> four-fifths. At the same time, world trade, which is increasingly
> mediated electronically, is expected to grow. Professor Howard
> Williams has looked at telecoms for the constancy firm Analysys.
>
> "As telecoms costs fall - and it's inevitable they will do as a result
> of the agreement - we will see very substantial increases in trade, or
> in the activities surrounding trade. And over time this will feed
> through to increased activity. We are already seeing the development
> of electronic commerce in the US and Europe increasing trade between
> those two countries."
>
> As competition intensifies, and customers expect higher quality at
> cheaper prices, companies will have to learn quickly in order to
> survive. State monopolies may have reason to fear the cold wind of
> competition, but small, private companies will dive into the open
> market. Ole Hakonsen is vice-president at Telenor of Norway.
>
> "We certainly see this as a big opportunity for us. The Norwegian
> market, with about 4 million people, is a fairly small market and our
> expenditure etc. for developing products can be paid only by this
> small market if we don't go international. And we see that we have
> good products, we have high competency, and we believe that we can
> compete in a good and efficient way with the other actors out there."
>
> There remain a number of questions surrounding the WTO accord. China,
> potentially the world's biggest market, is yet to sign. And the real
> test of the agreement will be how much, and how rapidly, once-closed
> markets open up. But if predictions are correct, companies across the
> globe now face massive opportunities, customers can look forward to
> lower bills and higher quality products, and developing countries will
> win easier access to information-based technologies... the engine of
> economic growth in the 21st century.
>
>** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
>is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
>in receiving the included information for research and educational
>purposes. **
>
>
>
>--
>For MAI-not subscription information, posting guidelines and
>links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
>
