ICS was pleased to have Dr. Martin Bangemann, European Commissioner for Industrial Affairs, Information Technologies, and Telecommunications, deliver this year's lecture. Dr. Bangemann provided a lively and slightly irreverent overview of the EU's ambitious restructuring of basic telecom by January 1998, discussed EU proposals affecting the Internet, audio-visual policies, as well as the relationship between electronic commerce and a single European currency. Industry experts from British Telecom, America Online, MCI and Esprit Telecom shared their perspectives in a follow-up panel. Despite the significant steps some African nations took in participating in the WTO negotiations on basic telecom services, the majority of the continent's countries have a long way to go towards liberalization and competition in telecommunications. At a joint roundtable sponsored by the CSIS International Communications and African Studies Programs, panelists from the FCC and the World Bank applauded the efforts made by seven African nations in the WTO negotiations, but all admitted the need for greater participation and more significant commitments.
Regulation is second-best.
The UK's regulatory policies in recent years have thus resulted in expanding competition in local exchange services as well as in long-distance service. With respect to the current process of deregulation in the United States, Cruickshank warned that U.S. regulators are at risk of implementing policies that create disincentives to investment in alternative local network facilities. Despite, however, their different approaches in dealing with telecom issues, the United States and the United Kingdom agree on the importance of both maximizing competition and protecting the consumer. This was just one of many questions raised by panels of industry and government experts in assessing the telecommunications issues facing the White House and Congress. According to the panelists, the recent agreement on WTO trade in telecommunications will present the second Clinton administration with major implementation challenges as more than 50 nations undertake the creation of competitive telecommunications markets and independent regulatory authorities.