International telecommunications alliances and foreign direct investment as means of globalization, legal and regulatory responses to the emergence of super carriers

by Adamska, Monika

An emerging phenornenon, which anticipates deregulation, Iiberalization of trade, and changes in cornpetition law, is the increasing interaction among telecommunications carriers resulting in the formation of global alliances. These global alliances-on a larger scalbalso involve broadcasting and computing companies that have been regulated in a totally different fashion. A likely consequence of this sweeping technological nvolution is that telecommunications will gradually integrate and converge with these segments of the communications industry. As part of this all-serviceconvergen trend, a number of key international telecommunications alliances (henceforth ITAs) are scnitinized. The thesis begins by canvassing leading business-organization theories that attempt to account for the emergence of ITAs. The first part concludes with the proposal of a multi-causal approach and the description of lTAs as hybrid organizations. The second part of the thesis canvasses legal responses to the emergence of lTAs and evaluates the institutional capacity of existing regulatory mechanisms. The goal of this study is to produce an analytical framework for how this newly globalized industry should be treated by legislators and policymakers.