Economic Impact Of Canadian Telecommunications Legislation

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

p7). It is therefore not surprising that Canadians are among the biggest users of telecommunications in the world. For example, in 1990, Canadians made more than three billion long-distance calls (Dept. of Communications, 1992, p8).
Innovations made possible through telecommunications have also contributed significantly to the phenomenal growth of the Canadian telecommunications industry. For example, the total value of the major telephone companies' investment in their facilities rose from $17.8 billion in 1979 to $40.3 billion in 1990. In the same year, Canadian telecommunications companies reported more than $15 billion in revenues, accounting for an estimated 2.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In addition, in 1990 the telecom industry achieved a real growth rate (after inflation) of 8.6 percent compared to 0.3 percent for the Canadian economy as a whole. Telecommunications is also Canada's leading high-technology industry; its Research and Development costs of $1.4 ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

is considering legislation to unify the European telecommunications market next year (Blackwell, 1993, p22). In order to not be left behind, Canada updated its telecommunications legislation to bring it in line with world developments. For example, a key piece of legislation that regulated telecommunications, the Railway Act, dated back to 1908 (Beatty, 1990, p135).

Clearly, with such "ancient" legislation, new policy was required that would allow a more flexible regulatory system, and not hamper the development of our telecommunications industry (as the Railway Act did). The first steps toward such a policy were taken in 1987 by the Minister of Communications, who outlined three basic ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: