Deregulating Telecommunications: U.S. and Canadian Telecommunications, 1840-1997

By Kevin G. Wilson

Deregulating Telecommunications critically examines the transition from monopoly to competition in the U.S. and Canadian telecommunications industries. Accessibly written with a minimum of technical language, this thorough yet concise book looks at the history of the telephone industry, its regulation, and over a century of related public policy. Featured are discussions of the roles of public sector institutions, private sector actors, and processes and policies concerning rates, subsidies, licensing, and rules governing interconnection of networks, among other key issues. This valuable comparative analysis shows the U.S. influence on Canadian policy, offers insights on the policymaking processes in both countries, and moves us toward a better critical understanding of the contemporary telecommunications environment.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847698254
• ISBN13: 9780847698257
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Best Criticism Ever Written About the Hidden Face of Deregulation

Kevin Wilson's work on telecommunications fills a gaping historical hole. Indeed, Canada is one of the world's leading countries as regards telecommunications, but the literature available on the question is very limited.(1) I should mention from the start that the original material in Deregulating Telecommunication s deals mainly with the Canadian aspect, because it is for this subject that Wilson calls upon the primary sources. The chapters on deregulation in the United States are less original, but they are relevant because they are indispensable in helping to clarify the Canadian situation: it is impossible to understand the evolution of Canadian telecommunications without presenting the forces at play in the United States . Wilson performs this exercise with brilliance. Deregulating Telecommunication s is divided into two parts. The first part, quite short, reviews the history of telecommunications in the United States and Canada . The second part, three times as long and alternating theoretical and historical chapters, gives a picture of deregulation in the two countries. This is the core of Wilson 's work. The first two chapters on the history of telecommunications are very rudimentary and rather weak, and, as they open the book, they are likely to dishearten the reader. This would be a pity, as the remainder of the book is of much higher quality. Ideally, the book would begin with chapter three, on the theory of telephone regulation. Here, Wilson is at his best, painting a fresco of the birth and evolution of regulation from the first centuries of the Christian Church to the present. By opposing the concept of justum pretium (the just price) to that of verum pretium (natural price) in force in Rome, the church fathers introduced several factors into price determination that were not necessarily the same as those used to determine the market price - and they emphasized economic, social, and contractual dimensions. Birth of and crisis in regulation Modern regulation was actually born in the nineteenth century in the grain industry. As the railroads expanded into the western United States , a few grain-elevator owners began to freely manipulate the prices charged to farmers. The states west of the Mississippi enacted anti-monopoly laws to regulate the railroad rates and the activities of grain-elevator operators. The laws were challenged before the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of the states. The rationale behind this ruling was that grain elevators were the "the very gateways of commerce" and therefore that they had become a business "affected with a public interest and had ceased to be juris privati only " (pp. 48-49). Wilson courageously sets out the theory of natural monopoly, according to which "one company can supply the service or product more efficiently, and at less expense to the consumer, than two" (p. 51). I say "courageously" since nowadays the prevailing neoclassical economics makes it difficult even to mention that

Beyond Deregulation

I found this book to go beyond a dry history of what is called telecommunications deregulation to address the economic paradigms that legitimate different regulatory regimes. The author has included some simple organizational tables, geographic service area maps, and graphs to help an outsider understand deregulation of the telephone system in the U.S. and Canada. The book is devoid of algebraic formulas characteristic of many economics texts on the subject that are meant to impress, obscure, or use parochial language that is only understood by other economists. On page 56 the author includes one of the simplest examples of how to describe marginal pricing I have ever run across. Likewise, his simple explanation of different radio frequency technologies makes the book accessible to a wide audience. It is interesting that the author concludes that the history of telecommunications regulation is a lesson in realpolitik, in that telecom providers have have been successful in a "near categoric refusal to compete with each other." The book is devoid of politicization but it does have a point of view.