The impact of the privatization of a state-owned telecommunications carrier on universal service in Korea

Abstract

Since telecommunications reforms began around world in the 1980s, many scholars have attempted to uncover its effects on the telecommunications sector. Nevertheless, research focusing largely on the impact of privatization on universal service has been relatively less frequent than other research on telecommunications reform such as the effect of competition on efficiency, investment, and universal service, and the impact of privatization on efficiency. From this perspective, this study attempted to explain the impact of the privatization of a state-owned telecommunications enterprise on universal service in Korea. This work may contribute to providing policy-makers and scholars in telecommunications with some useful policy suggestions by concretely illustrating how the privatization of Korea Telecom has influenced universal service policy formulation and the universal service system in Korea.