IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v49y2025i4s030859612500031x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical junctures in United Kingdom telecommunications policy

Author

Listed:
  • Sutherland, Ewan

Abstract

Telecommunications policy in the United Kingdom has had long periods of relatively minor changes, interspersed by short bursts of major changes. The electoral success of the Conservative Party in 1979 opened one of these critical junctures, enabling the creation of a regulatory state that persists today. The subsequent successful export of that regulatory governance model to the European Community (later Union) began a succession of additions and modifications. A smaller scale critical juncture came with the 2003 decision of a new regulator to review the rules for local access networks, leading to the separation of Openreach from BT, which persists today. A much grander critical juncture came with Brexit, severing connections with European Union legal, policy and regulatory processes, including those in telecommunications. Critical junctures can be a useful tool in analysing changes in telecommunications policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sutherland, Ewan, 2025. "Critical junctures in United Kingdom telecommunications policy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:49:y:2025:i:4:s030859612500031x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2025.102934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030859612500031X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2025.102934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cadman, Richard, 2019. "Legal separation of BT: A necessary incentive for investment?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 38-49.
    2. Coen, David & Thatcher, Mark, 2008. "Network Governance and Multi-level Delegation: European Networks of Regulatory Agencies1," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 49-71, April.
    3. Brian W. Hogwood, 1997. "The Machinery of Government, 1979–97," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 45(4), pages 704-715, September.
    4. Michael Blauberger & Berthold Rittberger, 2015. "Conceptualizing and theorizing EU regulatory networks," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 367-376, December.
    5. Lodge, Martin & Stern, Jon, 2014. "British utility regulation: Consolidation, existential angst, or fiasco?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 146-151.
    6. Jason Whalley & Peter Curwen, 2017. "From phones to football: the changing strategic focus of BT," Post-Print hal-04931258, HAL.
    7. Steve Thomas, 2019. "Is the ideal of independent regulation appropriate? Evidence from the United Kingdom," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 20(3), pages 218-228, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacint Jordana, 2017. "Transgovernmental Networks as Regulatory Intermediaries," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 670(1), pages 245-262, March.
    2. Diane Fromage & Mariolina Eliantonio & Kathryn Wright, 2022. "Soft law and multilevel cooperation as sources of (new) constitutional challenges in EU economic and monetary integration: introduction to the special issue," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 1-6, March.
    3. Yannis Papadopoulos, 2018. "How does knowledge circulate in a regulatory network? Observing a European Platform of Regulatory Authorities meeting," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 431-450, December.
    4. Eckert, Sandra, 2020. "EU agencies in banking and energy between institutional and policy centralisation," SAFE Working Paper Series 278, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    5. Fabian Queder, 2020. "Towards a vertically separated broadband infrastructure: The potential role of voluntary separation," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(2), pages 143-165, June.
    6. Ana Moragues-Faus & Roberta Sonnino, 2019. "Re-assembling sustainable food cities: An exploration of translocal governance and its multiple agencies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(4), pages 778-794, March.
    7. Janice A. Beecher, 2019. "Does regulation fail or do we fail regulation?," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 20(3), pages 258-269, September.
    8. Maher, Imelda & Stefan, Oana, 2019. "Delegation of powers and the rule of law: Energy justice in EU energy regulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 84-93.
    9. Tanja A. Börzel, 2016. "From EU Governance of Crisis to Crisis of EU Governance: Regulatory Failure, Redistributive Conflict and Eurosceptic Publics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54, pages 8-31, September.
    10. Nina Boeger & Joseph Corkin, 2017. "Institutional Path-Dependencies in Europe's Networked Modes of Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 974-992, September.
    11. Alejandro E. Camacho & Robert L. Glicksman, 2021. "Designing Regulation Across Organizations: Assessing the Functions and Dimensions of Governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(S1), pages 102-122, November.
    12. Heims, Eva M. & Lodge, Martin, 2018. "Customer engagement in UK water regulation: towards a collaborative regulatory state?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87258, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Paul Adrianus van Baal & Matthias Finger, 2019. "The Effect of European Integration on Swiss Energy Policy and Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 6-16.
    14. Lindner, Vincent & Eckert, Sandra & Nölke, Andreas, 2022. "Political science research on the reasons for the (non) adoption and (non) implementation of EMU reform proposals: The state of the art," SAFE Working Paper Series 339, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    15. Seejeen Park & Seunghoo Lim, 2018. "Are Networks Flat or Vertical?: Developing a Multi-Level Multi-Dimension Network Model," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 223-243, June.
    16. Arjen Boin & Madalina Busuioc & Martijn Groenleer, 2014. "Building European Union capacity to manage transboundary crises: Network or lead‐agency model?," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), pages 418-436, December.
    17. Jensen, Olivia & Wu, Xun, 2017. "The hybrid model for economic regulation of water utilities: Mission impossible?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 122-131.
    18. Philip Catney & John M Henneberry, 2016. "Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(7), pages 1324-1343, November.
    19. Corey Johnson & Tim Boersma, 2015. "The politics of energy security: contrasts between the United States and the European Union," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 171-177, March.
    20. Lovrić, Marko & Lovrić, Nataša & Schraml, Ulrich, 2019. "Modeling policy networks: The case of Natura 2000 in Croatian forestry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 90-102.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:49:y:2025:i:4:s030859612500031x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.