Telecommunications policy in the European Union: developing the information superhighway

By the end of this century, the telecommunications market in the European Union will have been transformed o a collection of national monopolies providing little apart from basic voice telephony and Value-Added Network Services (VANS) into a unified, competitive market for multimedia services - or at least that is the intention behind a series of directives issued by the European Commission. This should open up enormous opportunities for service providers, whatever their origin, and the process of forming the necessary alliances for world-wide coverage has begun in earnest. A first step, in many cases, is the privatization of the national monopoly provider. New forms of competition such as cable and mobile telephony are springing up with unprecedented speed - so fast, indeed, that the consumer is being left in the wake of the technology.
The European telecommunications market is comprised of national monopolies that provide little more than voice telephony and value-added network services such as fax and e-mail. The EU has issued a series of directives aimed at breaking up these monopolies through privatization to establish a competitive multimedia services market. The UK is leading in telecommunications reform while Germany, France, Belgium and Italy are still resisting such efforts. Alliances are already being formed to enter the market for mobile telephony and multimedia services.