Page 188 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

178 Communication, Commerce and Power

of this race to lead information highway developments, may well use
their economic clout to compel similarly seamless offerings to be
extended to their international operations. Related to this pressure,
AT&T, for instance, will probably intensify its push for further over-
seas liberalization reforms, using not just the WTO but also the
lobbying efforts of executives and neo-classical economists in the
pay of foreign businesses who also desire these services. Those US
corporations that are slow or unsuccessful will be compelled to look
overseas for significant growth opportunities. For example, if or when
RBOCs reach ceilings in their efforts to establish comprehensive
service networks, it is likely that vehicles such as the new WTO
services provisions will be used to further pry open foreign markets.
Cable television companies, facing new competitors in the United
States and in need of financial support, may well look to foreign
partnerships and pursue increasingly international agendas.
As with most significant legislative reforms, the market opportun-
ities released by the Telecommunications Act will generate corporate
winners and losers. Short-term winners will include business interests
located in large urban centers where markets are big and dense
enough to justify the construction of truly competitive infrastructures.
Communications and information corporations able to provide a
seamless menu of services will probably dominate the domestic sector.
The losers in this domestic struggle and those companies stymied by
the winners' entrenched control in 'open' markets, may seek overseas
partnerships and market opportunities. Likewise, the domestic win-
ners - in order to service their largest and most valued clients -
probably will pursue regulatory reforms in other countries in the
image of the US Telecommunications Act. It is important to point
out, however, that the international forces released by this domestic
legislation at this historical juncture only serve to intensify what
corporate interests already have been anticipating. In the next section,
dynamics in the capitalist marketplace directly involving DBS are
highlighted to illustrate this point.

7.3 DBS AND GLOBAL MARKETS

In addition to the re-regulation of cable television and the techno-
logical and economic advantages represented by DBS systems, both in
themselves and in relation to more general digital applications,
another development that stimulated investments in direct