The 29 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are moving away from government telecommunications monopolies, though public utilities will likely win out as the largest Internet service providers, the OECD said in a report released Friday.
The "1997 Communications Outlook" found that at the beginning of this year, only 10 OECD countries allowed competition. By 1998, 21 countries will have liberal markets, with only eight nations retaining their monopolies, the OECD forecasts.
However, public telecommunications operators - or, in the United States, the Baby Bells - will remain key providers of Internet service in all OECD countries simply "by virtue of the fact that they own and manage existing customer access networks," the report said. Public telcos added 18 million new telephone lines in 1995, with continued growth in 1996.
But with Internet access in high demand and virtually driving the communications infrastructure, OECD countries - which include the United States, Western European nations, Canada, Australia, and Japan - are grappling with the question of who should pay what for which service. The OECD report found that while prices for Net access dropped from about US$60 per month in 1995 to $20 per month in 1996, local phone charges have risen across the board.
Still, new technologies may change the paradigm of the telecom industry, with cable, broadcasting, and wireless companies are exploring alternative avenues to compete for your service. The OECD report notes that cellular mobile communications now represent more than 12 percent of all telecom revenue. The number of mobile subscribers in OECD countries was expected to double from 74 million in 1995 to 148 million in 1996.
