The Croatian telecommunications way toward the communications era

Recent years have brought interesting developments in the field of telecomm unications all over the world. Countries in transition have experienced it in their own way. Croatia is an interesting example of such a country. Afte r gaining independence in 1991 and setting course toward the open market ec onomy, the development of telecommunications was particularly fast. Recent related legislative changes as well as changes in the ownership structure o f Croatian telecom will surely have a significant impact on the future deve lopment of telecommunications in Croatia, which will be based on our own ex periences as well as the experiences of other countries in transition and d eveloped countries. The planning methodology will include the techno-econom ic evaluation of minimum-risk introductory routes for new services as defin ed within the European Union Projects. In this article an overview of the d evelopment of Croatian telecommunications during the '90s as well as plans for future development are presented. A comparison with other countries in development as well as with developed countries is given, too. In the secon d part of the article a survey of the development of telecommunications wit hin the County of Split and Dalmatia, including economic aspects, is given. At the end of the article a brief overview of research and development act ivities is also given.