Hardly anyone would doubt the potential of information technology (IT) to connect individuals, firms and organisations. Whether this power to connect will actually lead to the integration of markets and societies is a different issue. The articles collected in this book shed light on several aspects that are crucial for the success of global communication networks: they range from an appropriate framework for regulation and suitable strategies of firms that act as international players, to the inclusion of customers in defining product and service strategies, and from problems of access to advanced technology and networks for all groups in society regardless of their social status or geographical location to the role of new technologies in facilitating universal communication.

Inhalt
Regulation: Making Networked Systems Function.- Rewriting U.S. Telecommunications Law with an Eye on Europe.- A Quadratic Method for Evaluating the New Hungarian Act on Electronic Communications with Respect to the Policy and Regulatory Objectives.- The Status of Regulation and Competition in Poland in the Advent of the Accession to the EU.- Regulatory Framework and Industry Clockspeed.- Technical Aspects and Standardisation.- A Comparison of ENUM Field Trials.- 3G: Standardisation in a Techno-Economic Perspective.- Architectural, Functional and Technical Foundations of Digital Rights Management Systems.- Making the Market Fly: Critical Mass and Universal Service.- Service Universalisation in Latin America: Network Evolution and Strategies.- Sustainability of Community Online Access Centres.- The SMS Bandwagon in Norway: What Made the Market?.- How to Achieve the Goal of Broadband for All.- Estimating the Demand for Voice over IP Services: A Contingent Valuation Approach.- Integrating Citizens and Consumers in the Information Economy Master Plan.- The Transformation of Media Economic and Social Implications.- Pluralism in Digital Broadcasting: Myths, Realities and the Boundaries of EU Action.- New Perspectives on Mobile Service Development.- I-Mode in Japan: How to Explain Its Development.- Demand for Internet Access and Use in Spain.- Integration of Markets.- European Integration and Telecommunication Productivity Convergence.- Investment by Telecommunications Operators and Economic Growth A Fenno-Scandinavian Perspective.- European Union Mobile Telecommunications in the Context of Enlargement.- Fourier-based Study of the Oscillatory Behaviour of the Telecommunications Industry.- The CAPEX-to-SALES TRAP.- Modelling Regulatory Distortions with RealOptions: An Extension.