Sources of Long-Term Economic Growth and High Technologies in Telecommunications

The main issue that arises from the many years of telecommunications history is that outdated regulatory frameworks designed to defend consumers from monopolistic practices tend to actually defend monopolistic market structures from entrepreneurs that wish to introduce new business models, services and technology. The goal of the paper is to discuss the role of investment into telecommunications technology on economic growth and the necessary conditions for its effective application. It presents the causal links between the climate for entrepreneurship and innovation, with particular reference to the contemporary role played by telecommunications technology in Bulgaria. The role of telecommunications technology in the modern economy and its connection to total factor productivity, as well as the barriers to the effective application of that technology, are investigated. Some of these barriers are intrinsic to the technology itself, but many are the consequence of government regulatory and legislative policies that limit entrepreneurial undertakings.