Internet Services in Asia: The Rapid Emergence of competition and Regulations

摘要

The liberalization wave and booming infrastructure development of the telecom sector in developing nations is fueling the competitiveness among Internet service providers in Asia. Due to the varied regulatory environments, the evolution of the Internet services market has followed different courses in each country. In Hong Kong, the high-profile temporary shutdown of seven of the eight Internet service providers in March 1995 heightened the awareness of the Internet, and actually accelerated the entry of an additional 32 Internet service providers by year-end 1995. In contrast, Internet services in Singapore has served as the testbed for the island's first real exposure to telecom services competition. In September 1995, Singapore licensed its second and third Internet providers - Pacific Internet and Cyberway - a full year after Singapore Telecom's subsidiary, SingNet, launched its Internet services. This paper will examien the influence of differing regulatory environments on the development of the Internet services market, including the regulation and classification of Internet services, and the licensing of Internet service providers.