Telecommunication policy

In the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon, the strategy has been to never compromise on the technical credentials of new faculty. In some cases, we have been fortunate to find faculty candidates, such as Marvin Sirbu or Jon Peha (both in telecommunications policy), who already had built strong backgrounds in both technology and in policy. More recently, many of our junior... 

A factor that has often shaped the way a program evolves is the relative ease with which support for research can be secured. While this does not tend to be a big problem in an area such as energy or the environment, in other areas, such as telecommunication policy, there is very little government or private foundation support. Firms in an area such as telecommunications tend to be reluctant to provide support for policy-related work (for example on spectrum policy) unless they can be assured in advance that conclusions and policy recommendations reached will support their positions. In such a case, where there are only a few sources of interested-funding it is hard to put together a balanced portfolio of support. 

Fransman, Martin, 1992, Japanese Failure in a High-Tech Industry The Case of Central Office Telecommunications Switches, Telecommunications Policy 16 (3), 259-276. 

Valletti, Tommaso M., Martin Cave, 1998, Competition in UK Mobile Communications, Telecommunications Policy 22 (2), 109-131. 

Marvin (1997) explored the relationship between telecommunications systems and urban environmental policy. It challenged the powerful, and often taken for granted. 

This research was conducted within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE), a unit of the RAND Corporation. The mission of ISE is to improve the development, operation, use, and protection of society s essential built and natural assets, and to enhance the related social assets of safety and security of individuals in transit and in their workplaces and communities. The ISE research portfolio encompasses research and analysis on a broad range of policy areas including homeland security, criminal justice, public safety, occupational safety, the environment, energy, natural resources, climate, agriculture, economic development, transportation, information and telecommunications technologies, space exploration, and other aspects of science and technology policy. 

The European Commission has proposed a takeback law covering electronic equipment, including appliances, office machinery, and telecommunications equipment.386 (For more on how public policy can influence the environment, see Chap. 18.)... 

Today, graduates at the doctoral level from programs in technology and policy, who want to enter academic careers, face similar problems. The difficulties of finding hospitable academic homes in traditional academic departments are not serious in fields such as energy or environment. However, in other areas such as telecommunications or information policy, graduates with outstanding technical credentials still cannot find jobs in EE departments. They do, however, find positions in schools of information systems, in business schools, or in schools of public policy. 

Fulle, Ronald G. Telecommunications History and Policy into the Twenty-first Century. Rochester, N.J. RIT Press, 2010. Examines the history of telecommunications, analyzing how policy has affected development. 

Armstrong, Mark, 1997, Competition in Telecommunications, Oxford Review of Economic Policy 2> 64-82. 

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