Last year in the United States, more mail was delivered electronically than was delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. As more and more individuals and companies use electronic networks, questions inevitably arise regarding the appropriate roles of the government and the private sector. Developing solutions to these questions requires your help. The most important role for governments to play is to open up their telecommunications markets. Electronic Commerce depends on reliable and affordable communications networks.
Experience shows that competition is vital to the development of such networks.
Competition has been an enormous benefit to consumers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, and Sweden. In each case, there is tangible evidence that citizens and businesses have benefited relative to those in similar countries that have maintained monopoly markets. For instance, among the relatively homogeneous countries of the OECD, the number of new lines added each year in competitive networks grew by 21 percent between 1990 and 1994 while in non-competitive networks the number fell by 28 percent . Moreover, competition keeps costs down. For years we have seen it in our long distance market.