REGULATING THE LIBERALISED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024766 |
| Published date | 01 February 1992 |
| Pages | 185-192 |
| Date | 01 February 1992 |
| Author | COLIN SCOTT |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
REGULATING
THE
LIBERALISED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SECTOR
Received:
16th
November,
1992.
COLIN SCOTT
COLIN
SCOTT
STUDIED
IN
LONDON AND TORONTO
AND
NOW
LECTURES
IN
LAW
AT
THE
LONDON
SCHOOL
OF
ECONOMICS.
HE
PREVIOUSLY
TAUGHT
AT THE
SCHOOL
OF
LAW,
UNIVERSITY
OF
WARWICK.
HIS
MAIN
RESEARCH
INTERESTS
ARE
IN
ECONOMIC
REGULATION,
CONSUMER PROTECTION
AND
PUBLIC
SECTOR MANAGEMENT.
HE IS AN
ASSISTANT EDITOR OF
UTILITIES
LAW
REVIEW.
AND CO-EDITOR (WITH S. PICCIOTTO AND
J.
Mc
CAHERY) OF
CORPORATE CONTROL AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
(OXFORD
UNIVERSITY
PRESS.
1993).
ABSTRACT
After
considering
the
background
to the
regulation
of the
telecommunications
industry,
the paper
examines
the promotion
of
competition
and
protection
of consumers
in
the
sector.
It
concludes
with
the
view
that Oftel
is
seeking
to
develop
a
more
robust
style
of
regulation
and is a
likely
model for other EC
Member
States.
INTRODUCTION
In
his
final Annual Report
as
Direc-
tor-General
of
Telecommunications,
Sir Bryan Carsberg suggested that
the ending
of the
transitional phase
of protected duopoly
in the
core
telecommunications market
in the
UK
had
resulted
in the
creation
of a
new framework
for
regulation.1
Paradoxically perhaps,
the
activities
of
the
regulator
are
going
to be
cen-
tral
to the
creation
and
maintenance
of
a
liberalised telecommunications
sector.
As
with
the
other utility
sectors,
the
principal fixed capital
of
the telecommunications sector
is the
network provision.
The
regulator
of
a liberalised telecommunications
market
has to
ensure that
all
service
providers reasonably demanding
to
use
the
network
can do so,
that
the
network owners
do not
secure unfair
advantage from their ownership
of
the network,
but at the
same time
that
it
remains economic
to
main-
tain
and
develop
the
network provi-
sion.
So the
network simultaneously
has
a
commercial significance
for the
service providers,
but
also
a
wider
social
and
economic significance
for
the country
as a
whole, which
it is
the policy
of the
government
to
pro-
tect.
The regulator's role will
not end
at ensuring
the
conditions
for a
liberalised market
are
present.
It is
185
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