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This book bridges the worlds of the economist, the engineer, the regulator and the manager. It outlines the technology of the subject in sufficient detail to provide an understanding of the industry's economics, and presents a comprehensive picture of the markets into which its products and services are sold.

Service supply monopolies are dissolving under the combined pressures of technological change, managerial inventiveness and regulation, leading the industry into uncharted waters. Competition is appearing in the local loop. International telecommunications services have been among the fastest to change, both technologically and in market structure. These developments, along with resale operations and their associated cost structures are analysed, as are the comparative advantages of satellite and cable systems.

There are good economic reasons for optimism about what these changes will bring, not least in more efficient pricing and resource allocation, but important matters of public welfare are at stake, and these too are discussed.

Examples and statistics are drawn across the full range of the world's nations, offering insights which may be missed when concentrating on the rich countries alone. While the book is of most value to industry professionals, the clarity of its analysis makes it useful to anyone with a business or academic interest in telecommunications

Jeffery Wheatley graduated in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1954, and has spent his working life in the postal and telecommunications industries. He headed British Telecom's team of economists until 1989, when he became an independent international consultant. Much of his work has been concerned with developing countries and with privatisation, competition and international services.