Telecommunications and the Reconstruction of Regional Comparative Advantage

The purpose in this paper is to illustrate the ways in which telecommunications—seen within an information economy perspective—is coming to assume a central status both in the process of economic development and in the redefinition of spatial relationships. This increasing centrality poses major challenges for the regulatory environments within which telecommunications-based innovations are being shaped. Further, a number of questions are raised by these developments concerning the changing nature of regional comparative advantage in an increasingly internationalised information economy.