TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORMS IN PORTUGAL AND THE EUROPEAN-UNION

The social democrats, in office from 1985 to 1995, have introduced sig nificant reforms in the Portuguese telecommunications sector. The term inal equipment and advanced services were liberalized; the separation of the regulatory and operational functions became effective; the tele communications sector underwent a major restructuring which involved t he merger of the three main public telecommunications operators and, f inally, the main operator, Portugal Telecom (PT), was partly privatize d. The European Union (EU) has certainly played a part in the national telecommunications reform but this article argues that, although most of the policy decisions adopted in Portugal are in accordance with th e EU policy framework, it does not necessarily follow that they were i mposed by the Union and that they were in contradiction with the gover nment's short-term objectives. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd