Beyond liberalization: From the network of networks to the system of systems

Telecommunications are moving from the traditional monopoly, by way of the intermediate stage of a ‘network of networks’ to the stage of a ‘system of systems’ in which users are served by systems integrators that access each other. This environment will not be the ‘end of history’ as far as regulation is concerned, and government is not likely to disappear from this area. It would be naive to expect less regulatory tasks. Liberalization will not mean libertarianism. Opening telecommunications to competition, painful as it is, will prove to be politically and conceptually the easy part. Dealing with the consequences will be the next and more difficult challenge.