International Comparison Of The Telecommunications Industry And Its Enlightenment

From the 70s and the 80s of the twentieth century, the main developed countries, such as the UK, the United State and Japan, have successively conducted telecommunications regulation reform to improve their telecommunications industry development. Those developed countries carry out reformation policy of deregulation and establish competition system and privatization, according to their own situation. Although the history, the culture and legal system backgrounds are different from one and another, the development levels are various and the starting points of regulation reform are not the same, the basic targets of telecommunications regulation of different countries for over twenty years are similar: to improve telecommunications by breaking monopoly and establish competition system.The telecommunications industry is the basic industry of offering the public service for every walk of life, performance of which not only restricts the industry's own operation performance, but also influences the whole development level of national economy. The telecommunications industry is becoming more and more important in the information age. Chinese telecommunications industry has made substantial progress in recent decade. China Unicom's entrance the market in 1994 broke the monopoly in the industry. There have been numerous changes happened in the following ten years. Among them, the government's molding of the market structure and the competition among the telecommunications operation companies especially attracted the attentions. At present, there is still a big gap between international competitive power of Chinese telecommunications corporations and multinational ones. Along with China's entry to WTO and continuing opening the Chinese telecommunications market, multinational telecommunications corporations are itching to have a go. So improving competitive power of Chinese telecommunications corporations is looming ahead. Through a review of the history and the developing trend of main developed countries, the paper concludes that in respect of cultivating competitive power of telecommunications corporations of their own countries, developed countries lay a foundation for improving their telecommunications operation through providing a good system framework. For China, the government should perfect legal system and system environment as soon as possible to improve market competition and take effective measures to strengthen competitive power of Chinese telecommunications corporations.On the basis of exploring the telecommunications regulation of the UK, United States and Japan and analyzing their differences respectively, combining with the history and the existing problems of Chinese telecommunications reform, the paper sums up the experience the telecommunications regulation reform of main developed countries. This is significant for Chinese telecommunications regulation.Through analysis and comparison, the paper concludes the enlightenment and gives some reasonable advice to Chinese government on how to improve the regulatory system and promote the formation of effective competition of the telecommunications industry in China. The strategies are: establishing legal system of telecommunications regulation; actively promoting price system reform; creating stable and harmonious market environment, etc.This paper is divided into four parts as follows:The first part introduces the definition of telecommunications industry and its characteristics at first, then briefly analyzes and evaluates basic theory of telecommunications industry regulation. The suggested regulation theory, which provides theoretical basis for the whole paper contains regulation economy and system economy concerning regulation. This part also covers the background under which the author selects this topic to write the paper, the importance of writing the essay.The second part: international comparison and analysis on the telecommunications reform of main developed countries. This part focuses on the telecommunications reform of the UK, the United States and Japan. Through the comparison and analysis, the paper concludes that although the telecommunications reform of different countries differs from one and another, the aim is the same: to release regulations and promote competition to develop the telecommunications reform, though the situation and mode of these countries differs. The third part: the developing trend and the existing problems of Chinese telecommunications regulation. First, this part introduces the history of Chinese telecommunications reform; then the paper summarizes the achievements of the regulation reform. Through the review and comparison, the paper concludes the existing problems of Chinese telecommunications regulation in price regulation, industry structure, asymmetry regulation, universal service and interconnection regulation and the market entry regulation.In the fourth part, on this basis of the third part, the section puts forward proposals and viewpoints in terms of key theoretical problems and feasible strategies concerning telecommunications regulation. The core idea of Chinese telecommunications regulation is, introducing competition and encouraging competition, conducting property right reformation and reorganizing of the property. At the same time, the government should establish effective regulatory system to promote the formation of effective competition and constitute related law to put the market competition under the legal norm. The strategies are: establishing legal system of telecommunications regulation; actively promoting price system reform; mending the reorganization of the enterprises; creating stable and harmonious market environment; advancing universal service and interconnection regulation and perfecting the fair market entry regulation.