Not quite magic. (World Trade Organization agreement to open telecommunications markets in 69 countries)

Economist (US), The, February, 1997

The World Trade Organization announced on Feb 15, 1997, that 69 countries have agreed to liberalize their telecommunications markets by 1998. This will increase global competition in the largest markets such as Japan and the US, but monopolies are likely to dominate the markets in the short-term.

CONFUSED about telecoms? Join the club. For more than a decade, from the break-up of the old AT&T and the privatisation of British Telecom in 1984 to last year's telecoms-reform act in America, callers around the world have been told that the stodgy monopolies they know so well face a wave of competition. Consumers have been promised cheaper prices, new services and a multitude of choice. But every month the same telephone bill arrives from the same old monopoly, charging...

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