The public interest and the global, future telecommunications landscape

Abstract

Purpose

Taking a forward looking and global perspective, the paper seeks to address the issue of whether the concept of public service telecommunications has any relevance to the future.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on published sources to look at the history of public service telecommunications, mainly in the USA, reviews the progress towards universal service across the world and explores the likely future developments in the telecommunications landscape over the next few decades.

Findings

The concept of public service telecommunications helped to stabilise the telecommunications industry in its infancy but ultimately stifled access to telecommunications services at affordable prices. However, the future will still need to be nurtured so that telecommunications are provided genuinely in a way that serves the public interest.

Originality/value

Provides a global and forward‐looking view on the value of the public interest in telecommunications.

Citation

Blackman, C. (2007), "The public interest and the global, future telecommunications landscape", info, Vol. 9 No. 2/3, pp. 6-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636690710734616