Trans-European Telecommunication Networks

The shift towards a liberal regime within European telecommunications is tied intimately into the development of the information society across the continent. The rise of market forces across telecommunications (as well as increasingly related sectors such as IT and content) has created an interface between corporate strategy and public policy that is driving widespread socioeconomic change. The Commission’s aim is to use the public policy/corporate strategy interface to build the information society based on a pluralist platform reflecting its liberal-driven development agenda. However this pluralist strategy understated the aggressiveness (in both political and economic terms) with which incumbents sought to defend their respective positions. As a result, doubts emerged over the viability and practicality of the liberal approach. This concern has been compounded by the slump in telecommunications in the late 1990s and the uncertainties and instability within corporate strategy that it created. Thus the development of TENs in telecoms stands at a crossroads between the desire for a market-driven approach and the need to utilise incumbents to deliver the information society. This will involve a need to control and reward these incumbents which has implications for the policy/corporate strategy interface.