I just received this book, and I highly recommend it.
It's called "Competition and Chaos: U.S. Telecommunications Since the 1996 Act", it was published in 2005 so it's not really new but it analyzes the policy makers role (and mistakes) since 1996 and the subsequent events including the burst of the .net bubble.
The book can be obtained from amazon through the following link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Competition-Chaos-Telecommunications-Since-Telecom/dp/0815716176/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1330962723&sr=8-5
Does it focus in particular on the peculiarities of the US market?
ReplyDeleteI'm always a little unsure as to how regulatory activity in the US is a good role model for activity in other countries, given the huge landmass and diverse population, and lack of much in the way of coverage outside major centres — competition, it seems, can be almost notional in the US, since having multiple providers in the country does not necessarily equate to multiple providers in any given region. (I suppose that other markets might share this trait — Canada, Brazil, and other large countries, perhaps?)
No doubt regulatory activity in the US has always been extremely different from the rest of the world, and in many cases, what works in the US might not work elsewhere and vice-versa. Some of the lessons learned however are transferable. One of the few benefits (if any) of living in a developing country is having the luxury of learning from the others' mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this book paid a lot of effort highlighting the mistakes the US has done, so there's a lot to learn from.