Competitive telecommunications - changes below the waterline

In the turbulent world of the 1990s, no industry more clearly demonstrates rapid change than telecommunications. Communications are the life blood of global trade and it is no coincidence that liberalisation of this key industry in many parts of the world is happening at a time of increasingly competitive trade between nations. Today, competition is the main driver of business activity and in most companies across the world the same management credo of quality competitiveness and re-engineering is being applied. The use of information and networked computing are assuming new levels of strategic importance as companies streamline, automate and rethink many of their business functions. Growth in the communications sector will be spectacular throughout the 1990s and beyond as the developed and newly developing economies become information societies. The impact of these trends on the communications industry itself is profound. The state owned, monopoly business model that has served the world over the last 100 years is now rapidly breaking down. The UK, along with the United States, has pioneered many of the changes that are now being adopted in many countries. This paper discusses the structural changes that are taking place in the communications industry; and the business and technical implications that are coming to the fore in managing and operating large scale communications networks in a highly competitive environment.