Telecommunications

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Telecommunications

• Presentation By Samantha Musil
• From Rural Development in the United States
  Connecting Theory, Practice, Possibilities By
  William Galston Haren Baehler

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Telecommunications

• What is Telecommunications? - Definition
• History
• Competition vs. Universal Service Whos job is
  it anyway?
• What does Telecommunications mean to Rural Areas?
• Access
• Future
• Discussion/Questions

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What is Telecommunications?

• Telecommunications is a multibillion dollar
  industry
• It is both a manufacturer and a service provider

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Definition

• Telecommunications functions in 2 ways
• 1). As an Economic Base that directly generates
  new wealth through development and sales of
  communication products and information services.
• 2). As a piece of the collective infrastructure
  that all other industries need in order to
  function.

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Definition (cont.)

• Telecommunications is the node that links
  production activities with exchange activities
  involving the circulation of goods and with
  information activities that coordinate the
  economic system.
• - - Hills

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History

• In 1934 ATT was granted a government protected
  monopoly over local and long-distance service.
• In return ATT committed itself to providing
  telecommunication service to every household in
  the United States.

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History (cont.)

• In 1946 the Rural Electrification Administration
  charter was expanded to include low-cost loans to
  rural Telephone companies.
• As a result, over the next 50 years, virtually
  all American households and businesses gained
  basic service and affordability.

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History (cont.)

• In 1982 a consent decree broke up ATT and
  replaced the monopoly with competition.

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Competition vs. Universal Service

• Competition is attractive as a means of forcing
  greater efficiecy, innovation, and consumer
  choice.

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Whos job is it anyway?

• Parker et al. recommends that the proper role of
  government should be to encourage the private
  sector to provide affordable access to
  telecommunications and information services
  comparable to those available in urban areas.

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Whos job is it anyway? (cont.)

• Any economic development policies should be
  focused on generating and augmenting demand for
  telecommunication services, not on generating
  infrastructure.
• - - Gail Garfield Schwartz
• Schwartz recommends that government make a high
  priority commitment to expanding service in areas
  of public interest education and health care.

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What does Telecommunications mean to Rural Areas?

• Will rural areas share in the new jobs and income
  created by this booming new industry?
• Will the state-of-the-art products of the
  industry penetrate the rural areas and improve
  the economic competitiveness and quality of life?

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New Jobs and Income

• Jobs and income While bringing
  telecommunication can bring in new jobs, these
  job are for the most part not glamorous. They
  are relatively clean and safe, however not very
  dependable. They hire many seasonal and part
  time employees, pay low wages, and provide
  minimal benefits.

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How Telecommunication Products can Improve
Economic Competitiveness

• Better price information
• Lower travel costs
• Reduced need for inventory
• Timely delivery of goods
• Enhanced responsiveness to market demands

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How Telecommunication Products can Improve
Quality of Life

• Transportation
• Health Care
• Education
• Social Services
• Civic participation
• Cultural activities

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Access

• Today 96 of all farms have basic telephone
  service, compared to 35 after WWII.
• The 4 without service lacks service because they
  cannot afford it, not because it is unavailable.

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Access (cont.)

• Income is a far better predictor of whether a
  household will have telephone service than
  urban/rural location.
• - - Parker et. Al.

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Access (cont.)

• Of the 6.8 million households in America without
  telephone service, only about 3 (or 183,000)
  lack service because of geographic location.

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Future

• Telecommunications development has the potential
  to make large and lasting changes, not only in
  the ways rural residents do business, but also in
  how they conduct their community affairs.

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Future (cont.)

• If telecommunications-based strategies succeed in
  creating adjacency where it does not exist
  spatially, and if these strategies succeed in
  neutralizing the effects of isolation,
  remoteness, and distance, then the decay of
  boundaries will be hastened.

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Discussion/Questions