The years since the early 1980s have seen exceptionally fast rates of change in every aspect of the telecommunications industry. These include major technology changes and the convergence of the broadcasting, information technology and telecommunications industries. The earlier view of telecommunications as a natural monopoly has now given way to one in which almost all parts are susceptible to some form of competition. Simultaneously, market structure has changed through the replacement of the former monopolistic, vertically integrated telephone companies by a variety of competing firms....

The objective of the second volume of the "Handbook of Telecommunications Economics" is to highlight the economic aspects of the evolution of communications technologies beyond the basic fixed-line telephony infrastructure that was covered in Volume 1. In that book, structural, regulatory and competition policy issues with respect to a well-known technology were covered. Yet, technological options have increased in a quantum manner. Fuelled by the creativity of entrepreneurs and policy-makers world wide, it is safe to infer that a process of creative destruction is well underway. Volume 2...