The U.s. Telecommunications Industry And Economic Trends

During the last two centuries, enormous economic transmutations have been occurred: firstly from agricultural economy to industrial economy more than a hundred years ago and secondly from the latter to an intellective one, which is on the stage right now. It was due to the technological revolution that they could come true. And this time, information technology is playing a very important role. So, what is called the "New Economy" can never be divided with information industry. Ever since 1980s, telecom industry, to which information technology is extremely important, has mushroomed with the development of modern times information technology. It has changed the way the traditional economy operates in that it makes technology a kind of input, which makes possible the transition from extensional reproduction to intensional ways. By absorbing the new kind of productive factor as technology, the traditional industry obtains fresh impetus in technical innovation. As the main part of infrastructure needed by the modern society, telecom industry will have great infection on almost every aspects of man's everyday life. First of all, as an important sector of technology industry, telecom is in a substantial position to the whole economy; besides, it serves as a necessary application field for technology, and will further expand the market for technical equipments, especially for telecom equipments. While the traditional industry is ready for the new economy, how can telecom industry adjust itself? The answer to this question will be given mainly through discussion on telecom market structure.As telecom increasingly converges with the modern computer industry, the pace of innovation and change has accelerated, which makes the States open-armed to the so-called "New Economy". As information industry gradually stepped into autumn, it becomes a dynamic part of the American economy. At the mean time, relevant innovation advances rapidly, which accelerates the pace of the new economy.Every certain epoch has its own "new" economy, and the new comer always substituted the past pattern on the basis of critical revolution of the productive mode. The anchor point of this thesis is the "New Economy", and we start with the discussions on telecom industry and the correlation between the new economy and telecom industry. To explore these issues in detail, this thesis is divided into four parts. In PartⅠ, we explore the main components of the telecommunicationsindustry, and show the chief difference between the traditional and information economy. In PartⅡ, microeconomic knowledge is used to analyze both the demand and supply aspects of the telecom market as well as the main topic of the thesis——the market structure of telecom industry, and afterwards, we look back to the history of the American telecom industry with respect to the market concentration. In PartⅢ, we examine the concept of the "New Economy" starting with the discussion of the three long-term economic improvement of the States since the World WarⅡ. In Part Ⅳ, after examine the discrepancy between the new economy behavior and traditional economic interpretation, we return to the discussion of market structure, concentrating on answering the question of "How to choose the right pattern of telecom industry" to facilitate the development of the new economy. A significant part of this chapter is that statistical models are introduced to help people make clear the influence the telecom or information industry has on economy. The terminal sentences are concerned with economic expectations of telecom industry and the new economy. The thesis emphasize particularly on correcting unbelievable standpoints of ultraists, and it gets to the conclusion that periodicity of economic operating is still the main feature of the modern economy.