Telecommunications policy is an important field of communications policy and has important repercussions for society.  Many of the issues that need to be addressed are multifaceted, complex, and policy decisions have to be made under conditions of uncertainty.  Theoretical, applied, and practical knowledge should all be important ingredients in shaping policy under these conditions.

However, policy is essentially a process guided by the material and ideological interests of stakeholders.  Whereas research and ideas are used as objective guides for rational policy design, they are also usurped to legitimize special interests.  This study maps the field of telecommunications policy and explores the multiple roles of research and ideas in its formation, implementation, and modification.

This report is based on a grant by the Ford Foundation to Michigan State University.  Additional resources to finish the project were committed by the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law.  During the course of the research, several opportunities were created to discuss the issues with other researchers, experts with experience in policy-making, and representatives of public interest groups.  Of particular importance was a workshop held at Michigan State University in October 2003.  The authors would like to thank all participants in this workshop for their valuable input (see the appendix for a list).  A panel discussion at the 32^nd TPRC conference in October 2004, Arlington, VA also helped shape the final stages of the research.  We owe thanks to Harold Feld and J.H. Snider, who provided valuable comments on an earlier draft.  Sandra Braman commented both on a conference paper based on the study and the full draft report.  Her extraordinarily detailed suggestions have substantially improved the final version of the report.  Last but not least, the authors would like to thank Becky Lentz at the Ford Foundation for her support of the research.