White Paper on Telecommunications (1995)
The 1980s were characterised as the decade of privatisation, or rather the sale of public companies and the withdrawal of the state from control of entire sectors of the economy. Italy only participated in this general trend throughout the decade with a long and inconclusive debate. Although the European Community, with the Maastricht Treaty, had mapped out the path for progressive transformation into the European Union, the European ban on granting state aid to companies to avoid undermining competition precipitated the financial crisis of the management bodies state shareholdings. A further complicating factor for the privatisation process was the structure of our economic system. The urgency of a radical reorganisation of the telecommunications sector, its centrality in the production system, and its close link with the future development of the state participations being dismantled made it a test case for the transformation of the Italian industrial system. Moreover, the telecommunications sector has been more or less everywhere in western countries among those most affected by privatisation processes and hence by the redefinition of the presence and role of the public authorities, giving rise to a series of transformations of enormous relevance also in terms of public law.
Index
Contents
Chapter 1. Problems of Italian telecommunications privatisation and market liberalisation
The genesis of privatisation
The financial system
Telecommunications between liberalisation and privatisation
Telecommunications in Italy
Price-cap problems
The Italian price-cap
Tlc privatisation in Italy
Conclusions
Chapter 2. The telecommunications system in Italy: legal aspects and institutional figures in transformation
Privatisation in the 1980s
The TLC system in the major western countries
The origin of the entity system in Italy
Italian regulations on privatisation
Competition and guarantees: institutional models and prospects
The Competition Authority
Notes
Bibliography
Chapter 3. Telecommunications in Europe
Foreword
The world scenario
The corporate structure of telecommunications operators in EEC countries
EEC regulations
EEC policy
Institution of ETSI
The Tlc market
The manufacturing supply of telecommunications equipment
Approvals of terminal equipment
Mobile radio
International telephone traffic and telephone pirates
Telecommunications control and tariff setting
Chapter 4. Telecommunications in Italy
International traffic
Automatic traffic
New services
International traffic by operator
Circuit rental
Automatic national traffic
National traffic via operator
Public telephony
Intercontinental
Radiomaritime services
Chapter 5. Tariffs in telecommunications
The tariff problem in tlc services
Telephone users
Tariff policy
Subscription charges
Local call tariffs
Intercity traffic
Facilitated tariff conditions for residential users with low telephone traffic provided for by the Ministerial Decree of 16 March 1994
International tariffs
Mobile telephony
Effects of tariff policy
Telephone traffic
User expenditure
Chapter 6. New means of transmission and communication
Preface
Cable transmissions – The English case
Alternative Cable Experiences in Great Britain
Business TV
Pay TV in Europe
The battle of the satellites
Digital sound
Internet
Germany
Japan
Chapter 7. TLC through the press
Telecommunications in the press
Market liberalisation and privatisation: which path?
European authority: which path?
Regulation in European countries
The US experience
The debate on liberalisation in Italy
The liberalisation of the Italian mobile telephony market: the case of mobile phones
Telecommunications privatisation in Italy
Towards a common project: European communication standards
Organisational restructuring and staff retraining
Interviews
Introduction
The interviewees
Gianfranco BRUNI PRATO
Hugh MERRILL
Angi LEWIS
Paolo DONZELLA
Peter H. GOOLD
Peter CULHAM
Giuseppe PAGLIARANI
Franco DOMENIGHINI
Luigi FERRANDO
Sergio ANTOCICCO