JPRS ID: 9566 WORLDWIDE REPORT TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

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• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00850R000300080049-7
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• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: November 1, 2016
• Sequence Number: 49
• Content Type: REPORTS

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~fPf~S L/9566
' 24 February 1981
Woridwide Re ort
p
TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY,
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(FOUO 2/81)
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JPRS L/9566
- 24 February 1981
- ' WORLDWIDE REPORT
TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(FOUO 2/81)
CONTENTS
WORI,W.IDE AFFAIRS
Brief s
Antaxctica-Japan Satellite Link 1
WEST EUROPE
FR.ANCE ~
Status of Telspace International Projects Reviewed
(AIR & COSMOS, 13 Dec 80) 2
Telematics-Government: Control of Communicat.ions Is at Stake
(VALEURS ACTUELLES, 22 Dec 80; ZE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR,
22 Dec 80) 1~
Directorate of Ccammunications Role, by Francois Zebrette
Electronic Uire~tory's Potential, by Geraxd Bonnot
Attitude Toward Information ~'low, Industrial Objectives
(Jean-Pi~rre Chamoux; ~UTURIBLES, Dec 80) 11
� Brief s
PSF Paris Broadcasts 11~
Memory Bank Wipeout 11~
_ a _ ~III - WW - 140 FOUO]
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WORLDWIDE AFFAIRS
BRIEFS
ANTARCTICA-JAPAN SATELLITE LINK--Yamaguchi (KYODO)--Sho~va Base, Japan's
Antarctic ebservation base on Ongul IslaYid, will be linked with Japan
through maritime satellites (Marisats) as soon as permission to start the
new service is granted by the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry. Test
communication with Showa Base is being ma+~e by radio. KDD officials said
use of the Marisats enables voice co~unication and also reception and
transmission of facsimile messages. [Text] [Tokyo DAILY Y~JMIURI in English
2 Feb 81 p 2 J
CSO: 4120 -
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FRANCE
STATUS OF TELSPACE INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS REVIEWED
Paris AIR & COSMOS in French 13 Dec 80 p 43
[Text] Telspace now has 86 ground stations to its credit, including 20 recent com--
pletions in Africa. The new station in Gabon, delivered in only four months,
entered into service in April 1980. The first Djibouti station was put into ser-
vice in May 1980. The 13 stations of the national Zaire network (Rezatelsat) were
just inaugurated on 23 November 1980. (See AIR ET COSMOS No 836) The Burundi sta-
- tion, recently installed, should be put into service very soon. The Ivory Coast
~ station and that of Guinea should also be inaugurated soon.. Finally the four sta-
tions of the national Niger network, now under construction, will be put into
service in September 1981.
The French group has also just been hired as the contractor for the construction in
Bangladesh of a ground station of the standard B Intelsat type. The contract, for
15 million francs, covers the completion .~f the station, microwave links, etc.
, Also in 1981 Telspace expects the order fo~ the main station of the national
"Telecom 1" station which will be setup at Barcenay-en-Othe.
Telspace has moreover responded to several calls for bids for new stations. In
Tunisia for the construction of the first ground station of the country (standard
A), at Tunis. In Morocco for the completion of a national network of three sta-
tions (with antennas of 11 meters diameter), one of which is stati~nary at Rabat,
and two mobile destined for the territories of the south. The main competitors
for these contracts are, as usual, the Japanese NEC, the American Harris, and the
, Italian STS.
Te~'space is also preparing to bid, in time for the deadline set for February 1981,
on the stations of the Australian national network project. This ambitious pro-
ject provides for the completion of five types of ground stations, operating at ~
12-14 GHz, for semirural telephone, for telephones between large cities, links
of the Ministry of Aeronautics and Transport, regional television, and direct
television to the public at large.
Telspace furthermore has already modified the equipment of 15 ground stations for
links with normal telecommunications "Intelsat 5" satellites, which will be put
into service early in 1981. A new contract, of about 40 million francs, is also
" expected for the expansion of the capacity of the two ground stations of Iraq,
previously built by Telspace.
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= The orders of the French group comprising Thomson-CSF and CIT-Alcatel will thus go
from 220 million francs in 1979 to about 280 mill;on francs in 1980. But Telspace
foresees a drop in orders next year, and recovery in 1982 with the appearance of
- ~ new material and the new equipment catalogue.
It will particularly be in 1982, after the experiments with the four prototype sta-
~ tions already orderPd from Telspace, that the new series of orders for ground sta-
tions for intraenterprise links of the natianal French "Telecom 1" network should
appear. The planned system is about 250 stations, with a unit cost of about 8QU,000
francs, of which France-Cable et Radio should spread the arders out over five years.
The AMRT modulation equipment associated with these stations will be provided by
- the Thomson-CSF/CIT-Alcatel/SAT group which has just recently been chosen by the
General Telecommunications Directorate (DGT).
E~y 1984, Telspace foresees an increase in its annual orders to about 400 million
f rancs :
Thanks to the large stations of the intelsat type, but also to the appearance of
new markets for smaller stations for regional or national networks. Henceforth
Telspace will be in a position to study and build ground stations with antennas of
2 to 32 meters diameter, and to supply modular equipmant making it possible to
adapt it to any kind of sate~.lite. Telspace also proposes the concept and com-
pletion of whole networks, delivered on a"turnkey" basis, as in Zaire or Niger.
COPYRIGHT: A. & C., 1981
6108
CSO: 5500
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FRANCE
'
TELEMATICS-GOVERNTiENT: CONTROL OF COMMUNICATIONS IS AT STAKE
Directorate of Communications Role
Paris VALEURS ACTUELLES in French 22 Dec 80 pp 16-18
[Article by Francois Lebrette]
[Text] "Telematization": a lively issue,
Mr Thiery's strategy involves a risk: a setback of the Concorde kind.
And a danger: state monopoly over all communications.
Everything begins with a change in the telephone directory. At first gl:~nce, the
_ initiative is both logical and clear. The paper directory is costly, the telephone
_ information services are jammed, the numbe- o~ subscribers will double from now to
1992, increasing from 15 million to 30 milii~n. Therefore, it was necessary to find
an alternative; and the electronic directcry proposed by the General Directorate -
of Telecommunications (DGT) is enticing.
It takes only about 10 minutes to learn to work the small keyboard which is similar
to that of an electric typewriter and to make the desired information appear on the
_ black and white screen at the cost of one telephone call. The "entries" are multiple:
name, street, profession. Over time, all directories of all the departments will be
alphabetized and updated every week. Finally, the operation is presented as free
of charge: the PTT will replace the old directory with this piece of equipment
witilout an increase in subscription charges. ~
Fifty inhabitants of Saint-Malo are now testing the system. In 2 years, the 250,000 ,
subscribers of Ille-et-Vilaine will have the system; and all of France will be
equipped with it 10 years later. The DGT estimates that for such mass production
the unit cost of this electronic directory will not be over 400 1980 francs. Amor-
tization is expected in 8 to 10 years.
However, this worthwhile modernization is not without uncertainties. And the am-
bitions of Gerard Thery, director of the DGT, are carrying far bc;ond the directory. ~
What is more he has the means for his ambitions: the DGT has 155,000 employees,
. about 45 billion francs worth of business in 1980 and over 25 billion in investments. -
Michel Noir, PTT budget spokesman before the Assembly, explains:
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"In its obsession to not miss the boat with respect to mass distribution of electronic
terminals, the DGT wishes to be in the forefront of everything. This leads to
frenzied activity."
~ And the launching, alongside the directory, of new services such as long-distance
facsimile, the transmission of. computer data via the TRANSPAC [expansion unknown]
. network, the multifunctional home terminal.
Such projects would be impossible without state support. Thery, a man who was able
to meet an existing need--the telephone--has succeeded in convincing the government
that he was capable of defining still existing needs.
His arguments? Telematization would permit reassignment of PTT personnel displaced
by automation of the telephone. What is more, the establishment of a vast national
electronic market would lead to the creation of a purely national industry of its
components and would place us in a good position on the world market.
For now, this national telematics industry is reduced. The reservation systems of
Air France and the SNCF [French National Railroads], and the handling of current
accounts in some banks are the most sepctacular developments thereof. And the
delivery of 30 million directories will not result in the 2stablishment of a big
components industry.
Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the bet made on a"great public" market is
justified. For Gerard Thery, there is no doubt about it. An opinion shared by the
Nora-Minc report which launched the term "telematics and now by Henri Pigeat, presi-
dent of the AFP, who says in his report on telematics for the Eighth Plan: "Trte -
markets are there." However, a few lines later, he admits: "In the case of resi-
dential telematics in particular, demand is, at the outset, heavily determined by
supply."
In other words, a bet is being made that a population attx'acted by these new pieces
of equipment will be able to find applications for them so that massive orders and
subscriptions will quickly ensue; that the concerned industry will at once develop
harmoniously; that, finally, this technological advance will assure industry of a
principal plac:e in the world market.
However, in his report on research for the 1981 budget, Jean-Pierre Chevenement has
~ several concerns over such a rosy future. There is little question of his disdaining
basic research; nevertheless, socialist deputy Belfort writes:
. "For all that, the very sizable increase of the telecoimnunications technological
deve:Lopment budget (of 88 percent, or 2.48 billion) is more a reflection of the .
financial aff.luence in which this administration finds itself rather than a reasoned
policy decision on the part of the government Expenditures made today in
- sectors for which we do not know whether or not there is an important potential
demand are not of a nature to guarantze the future of the French telecommunications
industry."
The DGT, by coming out with products which compete with one another, justif ies the.se
concerns.
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The Antiope system, which has already been tested, permits the reception of informa-
tion broadcast by the TDF [French Telebroadcasting Company] on a regular television
set equipped with a decoder: meteorology, stock market prices, road obstructions .
and also the telephone directory, if we take the troubl_e to have one.
Another system may be able to provide the same service: TELETEL [?telephone tele- ~
communicati~~ns], which will be installed in Velizy in a.few months for 2,500 sub-
scribers. More elaborate than the directory-screen, TELETEL not only permits the
passive reception of information but also the ability to talk with the service
called.
"The TELETEL user," the DGT explains, "can, for example, reserve his SNCF tickets,
check on the status of his bank account, send or receive messages, place orders with
� catalogue sales companies or with merchants in his district, thanks to the message
service, check on the services of small ads offered by the press, etc."
Such a gamut of services makes another product wnich the DGT is attempting to promote
somewhat useZess: the "mass distribution facsimile receiver." (TGD). This piece of
equipment is still in the prototype stage and indeed in the wood mock-up model phase.
- However, the General Directorate of Telecommunications is already announcing a mar-
ket of 10 million home facsimile receivers in 15 years. 1fie TGD will permit the
sending of a photocopy to one's correspondent in the field in 3 minutes. Dual usage
with the TELETEL "letter box" permitting the subscr.iber to call up on his screen
the messages sent by his correspondents.
Therefore, everything is going along as if the DGT, unsure of the Product which will
finally have the approval of the public, ~s striking out in an all directions pro-
motion, even if that means incurring setbo�ks in snme of its innovations.
"The DGT is working in an artistic fog," Michel Noir observes. ~ '
A fog which also consists in minimizing the political, ec~nomic and social conse-
quences of these innovations to force the adherence of the government first and of
the public next.
An example: Thery thinks that the use of the facsimile receiver will cause postal
traffic to decrease. However, to cite only this example, a facsimile receiver without
legal status can hardly replace busine~s mail. As for private parties, will they .
tolerate the appearance on their facsimile receivers of the advertising pitc~es which
the:y are getting in the mail? And themselves paying for the printout paper which
is costly. ,
Generally, the cost of the requested service will soon act in a deterrent manner.
The telephone subscriber must already expect to pay the cost of transmitting infor-
_ mation which he finds free of charge in his paper directory. And later he will pay -
by the i~.nit, after the fact. However, he will not perhaps be the only one to pay.
Already, when one asks at the keyboard for a list of Saint-Malo hotels (the only
"teledirectorized" city), one discovers that some of them have ~,..rchasPd several
"pages" of screen to praise their gourmet menus in various languages. At the DGT,
- they say that this is only a replacement of the few lines inserted in the annual
directory.
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In~a related connection, it is not certain that the telephone directory alone will be
enough to ensure the amortization of this terminal, even in 10 years: it would first
be necessary to be sure that the equipment would last that long. The DGT is quite
careful not to bring up the subject; however, it is obvious that the addition of other
~ subscribers would amortize the terminals more quickly.
Various private directories, or small ad offices, would find it to their advantage _
~ to pay a usage fee for the PTT terminal. And i.i spite of Thery's silence, Michel
Noir's position is clear:
"I doubt that we can preserve the single function of the electronic directory. It
appears that the DGT is experimenting with a view to a multifunction termi?nal."
The DGT`s ulterior motives are often very visible. When it explains that TELETEL
will permit the checking of small ads "offered by the press," or the reserving of
an airplane seat "through a travel agency," obviously what is involved are standards:
the system will be more profitable for the advertiser if he eliminates the agency
and the newspaper, which are useless intermediaries.
Consequently, there is no use pretending that telematic supports will not be in
competition with the newspapers, particularl,y the provincial dailies. ~
"I do not think the screen is going to eliminate the newspaper, absolutely not,"
Thery says forcefully.
However, he ~ould take away its means of living by depriving it of its advertising
revenues. In this sector, theoretically no provision has been made; but "PARISCOP"
[expansion unknown] which is to participate in the Velizy experiment frankly
acknowledges that advertising is necessary to it:
"Th.e screen will be divided in two, between information and advertising."
The DGT is already proposing to daily newspapers long-distance printing by facsimile;
it envisages the transmission of televised images through its own satellites,
"TEL~COM," and, in the ground, through optical iibers. In prospect: a state monopoly
unifying all the means of communication, mandatory channeling of all infurmation.
That brings us back to Thery's admission:
"w'hoever controls the means of telematics will control the use of these means."
In his thinking, the strategy he is advocating must permit the defense of French
culture. By controlling the network which will have become necessary, he could in
~ fact prohibit access to it by any information or entertainment program which did not
meet the standards. But who will set these standards?
COPYRIGHT: 19a~ '~Valeurs actuelles"
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Elec tronic Directory's Potential
Paris LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR in French 22 Dec 80 pp 56-57
[Article by Gerard Bonnot]
[Text] France is ready to do anything to sell its electronic directory to the ~
Americans. Does that include imperiling its provincial newspapers? Up in the
mountains, about 150 kilomete rs from Los Angeles, Big Bear Lake is a prosperous
tourist resort. In the winter, there is skiing; in the summer, boating and fishing.
At Big Bear Lake an effort is being made to preserve remembrance of the Indians and
prospectors in the conquest of the West.
On a particular day, however, it was the future which was the topic for discussion.
Digzitaries from the small community, with a total of 15,000 inhabitants, hoteliers,
businessmen, merchandisers, and forestry experts had assem~led in the town hall to
attend the presentation of a French product which is not yet to be found in the
~ United States: the electronic telephone directory.
- These big, sturdy and colorf ully dressed individuals, with louci voices and suntanned
complexions, were seated docilely b efore individual terminals which were made avail-
able to them. They had pecked away conscientiously at the keyboard. With varying
degrees of success. Delighted when they succeeded in having their name, company name,
services offered and prices charged show up on the screen. Puzzled when, followi.ng
an incorrect operation, the machine returned them to the starting position. In re-
spectable English, the men respons ible for the project, technicians and publicity
men, had describ ed all the advantages of r.he system to them. They had drunk cham-
pagne. Finally, the question period arri~. d. The president of the chamber of '
commerce raises his hand: "You said that tt~is is an advance, and we would like to i
believe you. However, first, how much is that going to cost us?" I
When the French speak about telematics, a word they invented, the Americans answer ~
biisiness. The business of communications. There is more than a nuance of language,
a difference in mentality.
Because the French have unde rstood that the marriage of the computer and the tele-
phone could change the realtionships between men, they wish forthwith to draw up
plans for the future. The government alerts the people, rounds up the industrialists,
tells them about their task, mobilizes citizens. Whether they want it to be or not,
the directory will be electronic. The Americans, who have been the pioneers of the
computer and telephone, have the opposite attitude.
Before committing themselves, they wait until the new technologies have been tested.
They content themsleves with breaking up traditional monopolies, positions acquired.
That is what they call "deregulation." Because they think in terms of service and
they are convinced that only the user is capable of evaluating a service properly;
i.e., very exactly, the price they are willing to pay. They depend upon freedom
of the marketplace to trace the profile of tomorrow's society.
Why did the Office of Advertising, the branch of the Havas Agency which handles
publicity for the telephone directory, choose Big Bear Lake for its demonstration?
In the first place because i t had only 10,000 subscribers. The computer programs
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. of the electronic directory are still being broken in and, for the mon~ent; cannot
respond to requests for too great a number of subscribers. But also, and above all,
because the Office of Advertising needed an American partner for the telephone lines.
~ The Continental Telephone Company of California, which services the region, is of
modest size. Up against the gigantic Bell System; which controls over 70 percent
of the telephone communications in the United States, it was delighted to innovate
and, if the experiment scuce~eded, to offer its customers a supplementary benefit.
'Informational Advertising'
What benefit? Hittingthekeyboard takes a little longer than consultation of a .
printed page. In France, where telematics is a national game and the telephone a
public service, the electronic directory when in place will offer the benefit of
permitting the user, rhrough his personal terminal, of having direct access to the
numbers of all subscribers in the country. However, the inhabitants of Big Bear
Lake still will not be able to obtain the number of a correspondent in the city of
Los Angeles, which is serviced by another company.
That leaves pub licity. For Claude Marin, who heads the Office of Advertising,
"The change from the printed page to the electronic page toill transform the profes-
sion." On paper, a list of subscribers is nothing but a series of names. In a com-
puter memory, one can select data, manipulate it, rearrange it in all imaginable
manners. The electronic dierctory, for example, can upon request supply the names
of all craf tsmen engaging in such and such specialCy, or a list of all the sell~rs
of such and such brand of a mass consumption product. If the subscriber wishes,
he can, for a fee, add to tiis name and address: the prices he charges, directions
on how to get to his establishment easily. Transportation companies can post their
schedules, theaters their pr.ograms. _
For the in:~abitants of Big Bear Lake, who make their living from services, this is
an appreciable benefit. So long as the electronic directory is kept up to date.
The merchant who has decided to have a sale can announce it to the public, real
estate agents can present a catalogue of houses for rent or sale which they have
available. This electronic advertising will also have the advantage of being
unobtrusive, since only those who make a request via their keyboards will cause it
to appear on the ir screens.
Because this kind of informational advertising unquestionably responds to a need, it
~ is at present principally handled by the local print media. Therefore, the advent
of the electronic directory threatens to deliver a harsh blow to this print media
by brutally dep riving it of part of its revenues. For the Americans, that is r.ot
, an objection. Their philosophy is that the best wins. When the directors of news-
papers across the ~ltlantic l.earned that they would perforce be beaten by the radio,
which had the means of announcing the news before them, they did not raise a fuss.
They bought into radio stations. Among providers of services, there is always a way
oF reaching an understanding. But in France, a country of privileges and private -
perserves, that becomes an affair of state.
The French Press F'ederation has just brought this to the attention of the National
Commission on Computer Information and Freedoms, which is officially responsible
for defending c~tizens against any abusive use of the computer. Rightly, the com-
plaint is legitimate. The electronic directo ry developed by the General Directorate
of Telecommunications arises out of the public service; its installation will be
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paid for one way or another by the taxpayers. If the state permits it to engage in
competition by means of adve rtising witli newspapers which are private enterprises,
it is ab suing its power. But if the Commission prohibits all advertising in the ,
_ directory, as it is being asked to do by representatives of the press, if it is re-
duced to being nothing more than a list of names and telephone numbers, what argument
would be left to attract the inhabitants of Big Bear Lake? Or any other customer
outside France?
- The Handicap of the Japanese '
France did not enter the telematics sector on an impulse. In the electronic revolu-
- tion which is in the process of drastically changing the balance of power within the
industrial world, France noted that in many sectors it had fallen behind, sometimes
irr~mediably. On the other hand, it has a strong point: the transmission networks,
as it was forced to invest massively in advanced technologies to renovate telephone
equipmen t which for too long had been neglected. Therefore, France decided to up-
grade these networks by linking them to information terminals. Through mass pro-
duction, at a good price for the public at large, it feels that this kind of terminal
has a chance, at least i:~ this sector, of winning a privileged position. From that
came the idea of the electronic directory.
Admirable reasoning which caused the great American ~~conomic magazine, FORTUNE, to
note in an article published this summer, "Descartes would have loved it." And, in
fact, at the International Salon of Telecommunications Industries, Intelcom 80,
which was held in Los Angeles in November, we were able to observe that French in-
dustries in this sector were from 18 months to 2 years ahead of their most direct
_ competitors, the Americans and even the T~~anese, who are handicapped by difficulties
with the ir script.
However, it is not enough to be right to earn money. Nor even to build hetter
machines. One must be able to prove that these machines are useful. Telematics
_ will no t really begin to live aad bring in revenues until the presidents of chambers
of comme rce of all the small cities in the United State~, who only know the law of
the marketplace, are convinced that they cannot do without it.
Descartes was not a businessman. The electronic directory, however attractive its
principle may be, is not an end in itself. What counts is the totality of services
which the terminal can provide, once installed. If the French, out of legal scrupl?s,
in an excess of formalism, refuse to understand this, they are incurring the risk
of paying dearly for their illusions.
COPYRIGHT: 1980 le Nouvel Observateur .
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FRAI~CE
ATTITUDE TOWARD INFORMATION FLOW, INDUSTRIAL OBJECTIVES
Paris FUTURIBLES in French No 39, Dec 80 pp 50-56
~Article by Jean-Pierre Chamoux, president of the Association for Law and Data
Processing (1'Association Droit et Informatique): "Informatian Without Borders"~
~Excerpts~ A Triple Stake
In information flows, the amount transmitted by nonphysical means is still very
small, especially if one considers the international networks as a whole. But the
end of this century is certain to see this situation inverted. And the stake in
the game of the future, therefore, is certain to be international telecommunica-
tions. It is a cultural stake, because control of the network will in large
~ measure ensure control of the message; it is an industrial stake, because control
of the network will involve control of the wide range of connectable equipment,
which represents a vast market; and lastly, it is an economic stake, because, by
orienting the choice of facilities, direct influence can be brought to bear on
the location of international decision-making centers and of tertiary activities,
which are labor-intensive.
I find it unforeseeable that the democratic countries of Europe will institute
coercive or police methods to prevent the crossing of borders. The antenna we
put on our roof tomorrow to receive televised broadcasts from a satellite will
thus be able to receive a multitude of programs emanating from various countries.
We cannot hope, therefore, to escape the mechanisms of the marketplace in this
sensitive area of telecasting, which is currently the prerogative of domestic
companies because of the physical constraints of geography. The true televisual
objective of tomorrow will therefore be to give domestic productions a chance to
effectively penetrate national boundaries. They will then have to compete with
~ high-quality American productions, the impact and professionalism of which is
known. This is not an impossible task, but it demands undertaking now if we are
to be in a position tomorrow to respond to the call of the international market,
especially in Europe. The idea must be a good one, since it has already been
taken up by the partners in the Anglo-Swiss private television satellite project
TELESAT.1
Z) cf. LA CORRESPONDANCE DE LA PRESSE 4 Nov 1980 pp 5,6; see also the daily
newspaper LA SUISSE 14 May 1980.
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Some Objectives for France
What might our objectives be in the worldwide concert? We must distinguish .
between two sets of objectives, one having to do with technological dominance of
the new infrastructures, and the other with dominance of the information flows
themselves. Regarding first the infrastructures, the two principal vehicles are �
- submarine cables and telecommunications satellites. The new submarine cables have
- a traffic handling capacity comparable to that of satellite facilities, and, what
~ is not generally known is that the total traffic being handled by these cables has
followed an evolution paralleling that of satellite facilities. This evolution
has surprised many futurologists, but it is a fact. French industry holds a
respectable position in the fabrication and laying of international cables, and it
has been backed by an intelligent and discreet government policy that:~has suc-
cee3ed in guaranteeing it some very substantial outlets. There are four countries
in the world that produce and lay submarine cables: the United States, England,
Japan and France. This industrial stake is highly significant, and it entails a
major research effort.
Paralleling it~is another industrial stake in telecommunications satellites and in
television broadcast satellites, which has been widely discussed lately, in that--
still from the infrastructures standpoint--it will also be important to dominate
the fabrication and sale of terminal equipments. It appears to me that nations
are going to have to draw up standards in this regard and to see to it that these
standards are internationalized and adhered to by all equipment manufacturers.
Once this is done, one can venture to control the networks by way of their
extremities; that is, to sell a large number of small intelligent data-processing
terminals, all of which will be compati~'_- with the networks. This venture is to
some extent the one proposed by the Nora-t~.:nc report2 on the computerization of
society. It was based on a seemingly realistic projection of a very high annual
growth rate in this sector. It is my belief that industrial positions during the
1980's will be largely a function of the choices that will have been made in this
regard. There are still virgin markets, like that uf international marketinq
procedures--a market that calls for a standardization F~fort, a regulatory effort,
and intelligent industrial backing.
All these infrastructures will facilitate the penetration of borders and are
- therefore sources of major concern. It will not be sufficient to control the
infrastructures alone; international information flows will also have to be con- ,
trc-lled. Considered for;the first time in connection with laws on data processing
and freedoms, control of transnational information flows has frequently been
addressed solely from the standpoint of juridical norms. In the Council of .
Europe, for example, there were long discussions on ways to standardize the pro-
tection of citizens' rights among countries whose national legislations on
freedoms might differ. We showed, however, that certain risks of upsetting
socioeconomic balances do indeed exist, particularly as between the United States
and the rest of the world. Other interesting findings were presented in this
sense, particularly by the Swedish studies on the vulnerability of societies and
2) Nora, Simon and Minc, Alain: "L'informatisation de la societe" ~The Computeri-
zation of Society~, Paris, la Documentation.Francaise, 1978.
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by the now highly regarded Canadian atudies on employment and economic self-
sufficiency in Canada. The free circulation ot information throughout the world,
and particularly the circulation of economic and financial data, does actually
facilitate the concentration of economic power, especially as regards services
and industries that are sensitive to the international division of labor. Econo-
r mic concentration and geographic concentration therefore go hand in hand initi~ally
with the growth of transnational flows.
' Is this, then, sufficient to warrant a condemnation of the current situation and
the institution of a system for controllins~ these flows? A control of interna-
tional data flows is of course contemplatable, much the same~as the controls o~
monetary flows and customs controls. But I question whether an administrative
control on commercial inf.ormation flows could be exercised for long without an
insidious extension of such control to other flows carried on the same channels.
I might cite statistical data, press information and even private correspondence.
In sum, direct control of information flows would be a difficult thing to make
operative, besides which, it might work more to the detriment of the one exercis-
ing it than would the system of total freedom that now prevails. On the other
hand, the need remains to plan now to restore the balances threatened by the
_ effect of concentration that accompanies the current laissez-faire in interna-
tional communications.
Information is power; no city can remain a capital, no country can be a power, if
they are not kept irrigated by the deluge of information needed to exercise the
functions of economic command. Cutting off the flow of information must therefore
be avbided.
I remain convinced, however, that international regulation of intormation exchange
is possible. It must be flexible and discreet, and must not interfere with the
mechanism~ of the marketplace. This was the direction taken by the governments of
France and Germany when they decided individually to back the development of
scientific and technical data banks with their respective national plans. But
against economic ard multinational mechanisms, states cannot intervene directly
in the economic circuit, since , if they do, they will find themselves in an
inferior position with respect to the giant commercial firms. In the search for
the balance of power that is inherent in their mission, the states of Europe have "
a role to play in the field of communications: They must obtain a more equitable
share of the infrastructures, which will then contribute to their con~trol of
transnational flows.
~
Based on the principles we have proposed, this international regulation is
possible, but it requires the political will to obtain it.
~
COPYRIGHT: Association Internationale Futuribles 1980
9399
CSO: 5500 ~
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r~ux ur~r'1ClAL us~ oM.,Y ~
:
. ;
FRANCE
Y
� '
~
I
I
BRIEFS
PSF PARIS BROADCASTS--Former television newscaster Maurice Seveno will initiate
broadcasts this month over Canal 75 [Station 75]. Broadcasting 'round the clock,'
this "daily Ile-de-France radio news broadcast" will aim at providing a counter- ~
view to the official news broadcast by Radio France, judged to be tendentious by
the PSF. Supporters have chipped in 600,000 francs to get the station started. ~
�[Text] [Paris VALEURS ACTUELLES in French 2 Feb 81 p 15]
MEMORY BANK WIPEOUT--According to civil defense experts, a high-power [nuclear]
explosion would probably wipe out nearly all the computer memory banks in the
French telecommunications system. A plan to "harden" the system, following
Norway's example, is being studied. Military communications are already completely
independent, being based on an integrated automatic system. [Text] [Paris '
VALEURS ACTUELLES in French 2 Feb 81 p 15]
;
~
. ;
CSO: 5500 END
J
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