Asia-Pacific Telecommunications USOs: Current Practice and Future Options

Notes and References

1. The authors would like to thank Paul Cole, Jock Givens, Jean Tean Goh, Richard Kuras, Don Lamberton, Jen St Clair, Richard Thwaites and seminar participants at the APEC TEL Seminar for Government and Industry Universal Access to the Benefits of the APII, 5-6 March 1998, Darwin, Australia, for their helpful discussion and comments.

2. See M. Jussawalla and D. Lamberton, ‘Communication economics and development: an economics of information perspective’, in M. Jussawalla and D. Lamberton (eds), Communication Economics and Development, Pergamon Press, Sydney, 1982, pp. 1-15; and G. Madden, S.J. Savage and O. Ng, ‘Market structure and productivity in Asia-Pacific telecommunications’, presented at the Industry Economics Conference: Making Competitive Markets, Melbourne, July 1997.

3. Doctor observed that in the US the information age of computers and telecommunications has excluded sparsely populated rural areas in which it is not profitable to provide telecommunications services. R. Doctor, ‘Information technologies and social equities: confronting the revolution’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 1991, pp. 216–28.

4. McKinsey & Co., Lead Local Compete Global, Unlocking the Growth Potential of Australia's Regions, Report for the Department of Industry, Transport and Regional Development Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra 1994, 128 pp.

5. See E. A. Comor, ‘The United States and the global information infrastructure: orchestrator, functionary, or mediator?’, Prometheus, 15, 1997, pp. 257–67.

6. See International Telecommunications Union, World Telecommunication Development Report, ITU, Geneva, 1997.

7. Cronin et al. demonstrate that competition and increased US telecommunications coverage enhance allocative efficiency. F. J. Cronin, E. K. Colleran, P. L. Herbert and S. Lewitzky, ‘Telecommunications and growth: the contribution of telecommunications infrastructure to aggregate and sectoral productivity’, Telecommunications Policy, 17 December 1993, pp. 677–96.

8. USOs cover services that generate revenue less than the economic cost of providing them.

9. J. Rohlfs, ‘A theory of interdependent demand for a communications service’, Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 5, 1974, pp. 16–37.

10. M. Einhorn, ‘Universal service: realities and reforms’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 4, 1995, pp. 721–6.

11. M. Cave, ‘Franchising universal service obligations’, presented at USO in a Competitive Telecoms Environment: Expert Symposium, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK, 12 December 1994.

12. J. Holmes, Study Project on Universal Telecommunications Service, report for the 17th APEC Telecommunications Working Group, Darwin, March 1998.

13. J. Panzar and S. Wildman, ‘Network competition and the provision of universal service’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 4, 1995, pp. 711–20.

14. See Jussawalla and Lamberton, op. cit., pp. 1-15; P. Share, ‘Telecommunications and rural and remote development’, Rural Society, 3, 1993, pp. 1–6.

15. http://nii.nist.gov/pubs/common-ground.txt

16. http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/rtif/toc/summary.html

17. http://info.ic.gc.ca/info-highway/reports/access/ac-rep-e-asc

18. http://www.mpt.go.ip/policyreport/english/tclecouncil/Interim-Report/index.html

19. R. Sisodia, ‘Singapore invests in the nation-cooperation’, Harvard Business Review, 9, May 1992, pp. 40–50.

20. http://ruralnet.mu/wvnct.edu/rural/ruraltel.txt

21. M. Cave, C. Milne and M. Scanlan, Meeting USOs in a Competitive Telecommunications Sector, report to Council for European Community, Discussion Group IV, March 1994.

22. M. Tan, T. Teo and G. Peng, Diffusion of Internet in Singapore: A Content Analytic Approach, Faculty of Business Administration Research Paper 97-06, National University of Singapore, 1997.

23. Asiamoney, ‘Malaysia’, October 1994, Asian Telecommunications Guide, pp. 20–1.

24. See ITU, op. cit.

25. N. Niscaya, Telecommunications for All: Universal Access in Indonesia, report of 17th APEC Telecommunications Working Group, Darwin, March 1998.

26. D. Anderson and J. Schement, ‘Information infrastructure and development in the USA: the role of government’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 4, 1995, pp. 727–35.

27. Australian Telecommunications Authority, Telecommunications Universal Service Obligation, Occasional Paper, October 1994.

28. Broadband Service Expert Group, Networking Australia's Future, final report of the Broadband Services Expert Group, Australian Government Printing Services, Canberra, 1994; Department of Communications and the Arts, Creative Nation Commonwealth Cultural Policy, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra, 1994; Department of Communications and the Arts, Beyond the Duopoly: Australia's Telecommunications Policy and Regulation, Department of Communications and the Arts Issues Paper, Canberra, 1994.

29. J. Sharp, Rebuilding Regional Australia Policy Statement, Department of Transport and Regional Development, Canberra, August 1996.

30. G. Madden, S. J. Savage and M. Simpson, ‘Regional information access: the use of telecentres to meet universal service obligations’, Telematics and Informatics, 14, 1997, pp. 273–88.

31. Internet accessibility has also been enhanced through government regulations which impose penalties on any ISP who fails to attain service coverage of 98% of the population.

32. http://www.ksu.edu/ ~ rcled/publications/lileracy/litnet.htmlhttp://www.ksu.edu/ ~ rcled/publications/telr/teledigest.html

33. R. Noll, ‘The economics of information: a user's guide’, in Institute for Information Studies, The Knowledge Economy: The Nature of Information in the 21st Century, Falls Church, VA, 1993, pp. 25-52; Information Highway Advisory Council Secretariat, op. cit.

34. Avoidable costs refers to the amount by which the total operating costs incurred by the carrier during that financial year exceed what it is reasonable to expect that the operating costs would have been if the carrier had not supplied services to net cost areas. Revenue forgone refers to the amount of revenue that it is reasonable to expect that the carrier would not have earned during that financial year if the carrier had not supplied services to net cost areas.

35. G. Louth, ‘An economic approach to identifying and costing universal service activities’, presented at the Eleventh Biennial ITS Conference, Seville, 16-19 June 1996.

36. A. Pano, ‘Will the NTC meet its targets?’, Philippines Yearbook, 1997, pp. 229.

37. The PMTS service, which will use either the US personal communications system or Europe's personal communications network, is a third-generation digital cellular communications system.

38. Philippines Department of Transportation and Communications, Annual Report, Philippines Department of Transportation and Communications, Manila, 1996.

39. Pano, op. cit.

40. PT Telekom and its joint operation partners are also required to allocate 20% of their annual investments on installations in unserved or underserved areas regardless of commercial considerations

41. N. Niscaya, Telecommunications for All: Universal Access in Indonesia, report of 17th APEC Telecommunications Working Group, Darwin, March 1998.

42. J. Holmes, Study Project on Universal Telecommunications Service, report of 17th APEC Telecommunications Working Group, Darwin, March 1998.

43. Einhorn, op. cit., pp. 721-6; Australian Telecommunications Authority, op. cit.

44. Einhorn, ibid.

45. The accounting rate is the basic ‘unit of account’ from which international settlement payments are made between the domestic and foreign carrier operating in a particular market.

46. See ITU, op. cit.

47. T. H. Chowdary, ‘International accounting rates’, Telecommunications Policy, 21, 1997, pp. 77; H. Ergas, An Economic Analysis of the Implications of a Trading System for International Telecommunications Services Based on Trade of Termination Services, report prepared for the Department of Communications and the Arts, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, Australia, 1995; International Telecommunications Union, Direction of Traffic: Trends in International Telephone Tariffs, 2nd edn, ITU/TeleGeography, Geneva.

48. Many Asia-Pacific countries attach the international settlement arrangement to domestic universal service. For instance, Siochru suggests that in Chinese Hong Kong, 29 cents of the 46 cents per minute average settlement rate is used to cross-subsidise local calls; S. O. Siochru, ‘The ITU, the WTO and accounting rates: limited prospects for the South’, presented at 12th EURICOM Colloquium on Communication and Culture, Boulder, October 1997.