This paper examines why a Portuguese telecommunications company – Marconi – adopted activity-based costing (ABC). The focus lies in new institutional sociology (NIS), particularly the institutional change model of Dillard et al. (Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 17(4), pp. 506–542, 2004), supplemented by theoretical triangulation involving economic, labour process and actor network theories to enrich observations and extend theory. Why Marconi adopted ABC lay in a complex, interrelated chain of institutions, including the parent company, management consultants, national and European Union regulators, financial markets and consumer associations during market liberalization. ABC was a means and symbol of improved competitiveness and efficiency but its diffusion and adoption also involved mimetic, coercive and normative factors. In regulated environments external legitimacy and efficiency were intertwined and demonstrating efficiency using accounting symbols is problematic. The resul...

Extending Institutional Analysis through Theoretical Triangulation: Regulation and Activity-Based Costing in Portuguese Telecommunications

After placing the development of EU broadcasting and telecommunications policy into its historical context, the article argues that the EU, having traditionally found it difficult to develop a regulatory regime concerning content and culture, has primarily utilized telecommunications regulation in regard to broadcasting. This framework is a necessary but insufficient base for the regulation of convergent technologies.

European Union Broadcasting and Telecoms Towards a Convergent Regulatory Regime

Universal service in the European Union

The twin goals of telecommunications liberalization and promotion of integrated infrastructure require a centralized regulatory authority, however, concerns over local autonomy conflict with this need. In Europe, the debate focuses on the allocation of jurisdiction between National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) in the member states and the European Commission (EC); in the United States, the conflict is between state Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) and the ederal Communications Commission (FCC).F While the tension between local and national regulatory institutions is not new, the issue is both more important and more difficult to resolve today. First, a centralized regulatory authority is needed today if fforts to promote eincreased local competition and deregulation (US) -- or liberalization (European Union) -

/pdf/telecommunication-regulation-in-the-united-states-and-europe-44owufuhw1.pdf

Telecommunication Regulation in the United States and Europe: The Case for Centralized Authority

Telecommunications have developed at an incredible speed over the last couple of decades The decreasing size of our phones and the increasing number of ways in which we can communicate are barely the only result of this (r)evolutionary development The latter has indeed multiple implications

The change of paradigm for telecommunications regulation, epitomised by the processes of liberalisation and reregulation, was not sufficient to answer all regulatory questions pertinent to communications Today, after the transition from monopoly to competition, we are faced perhaps with an even harder regulatory puzzle, since we must figure out how to regulate a sector that is as dynamic and as unpredictable as electronic communications have proven to be, and as vital and fundamental to the economy and to society at large

The present book addresses the regulatory puzzle of contemporary electronic communications and suggests the outlines of a coherent model for their regulation The search for such a model involves essentially deliberations on the question "Can competition law do it all?", since generic competition rules are largely seen as the appropriate regulatory tool for the communications domain The latter perception has been the gist of the 2002 reform of the European Community (EC) telecommunications regime, which envisages a withdrawal of sectoral regulation, as communications markets become effectively competitive and ultimately bestows the regulation of the sector upon competition law only

The book argues that the question of whether competition law is the appropriate tool needs to be examined not in the conventional contexts of sector specific rules versus competition rules or deregulation versus regulation but in a broader governance context Consequently, the reader is provided with an insight into the workings and specific characteristics of the communications sector as network-bound, converging, dynamic and endowed with a special societal role and function A thorough evaluation of the regulatory objectives in the communications environment contributes further to the comprehensive picture of the communications industry 

Upon this carefully prepared basis, the book analyses the communications regulatory toolkit It explores the interplay between sectoral communications regulation, competition rules (in particular Article 82 of the EC Treaty) and the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) relevant to telecommunications services The in-depth analysis of multilevel construct of EC communications law is up-to-date and takes into account important recent developments in the EC competition law in practice, in particular in the field of refusal to supply and tying, of the reform of the EC electronic communications framework and new decisions of the WTO dispute settlement body, such as notably the Mexico-Telecommunications Services Panel Report 

Upon these building elements, an assessment of the regulatory potential of the EC competition rules is made The conclusions drawn are beyond the scope of the current situation of EC electronic communications and the applicable law and explore the possible contours of an optimal regulatory framework for modern communications

The book is of particular interest to communications and antitrust law experts, as well as policy makers, government agencies, consultancies and think-tanks active in the field Experts on other network industries (such as electricity or postal communications) can also profit from the substantial experience gathered in the communications sector as the most advanced one in terms of liberalisation and reregulation

EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law

https://www.key4biz.it/files/000090/00009023.pdf

Y Blondeel

Papers

The EU regulatory framework in telecommunications