Summary

This work, focusing on the progress of telecommunications in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, seeks to play an integrative role and is itself, an example for the development towards a Europe-wide open economy and society that preserves national peculiarities. The publication has emanated from a co-operative research project and examines the evolution of the most dynamic infrastructural sector of a group of countries which are candidates for membership in the European Union. The partners are experts from these countries or scholars with professional contacts to the national telecommunications and research organizations and administrators. The evolution of the legal and institutional framework of a more unified Europe still has some severe constraints to overcome in the present phase of transition. There are some segments and countries of this sector lagging behind, which may be suggesting a more differential inquiry about individual markets, achievements, and individual bottlenecks.