(i) Key Issues. Key TBDF issues include:
- Requirements to use locally manufactured equipment, software, and services.
This may be more costly and it may compromise a firm’s standardization strat-
egy. - Requirements to process certain types of data locally. This may affect cost and
it may mean that data from different geographic locations may be processed in
different ways, compromising aggregation and consistency. - Restrictions on data that may be transmitted among countries. The implication
may be that applications running in a country may run with incomplete data. - Increased tariffs that increase costs.
- Government intervention including the requirement to register databases and in-
trusive monitoring procedures.
(ii) Management Strategies. One strategy that an international firm can follow is to
track closely procedures and new regulations related to TBDF in the countries in
which it operates. Often, it is useful to create an internal task force that assesses the
regulations of each country in which the firm operates and assesses the extent to
which the firm is in compliance with these regulations. Some firms assign this re-
sponsibility to the Director of Telecommunications, who stays informed through spe-
cial reports, journals, professional literature, and professional associations, such as
the International Telecommunications User Group. Sometimes the monitoring of
compliance is part of an overall political risk-assessment program.
TBDF usually takes one of two forms. Either it is extensively processedinforma-
tion, or as rawdata. Interestingly, raw data tends to be more highly scrutinized and
regulated by local authorities than is processed information. When there are restric-
tions in the transfer of raw data, a firm should process data within the host country.
(b) Local Telecommunications. Keen observes that, “International telecommunica-
tions is a morass of regulatory, nationalistic and economic complexities.”^28 Telecom-
munications traffic is expected to grow significantly, with much of this in mobile
communications. Telecommunication costs vary widely worldwide and this is be-
coming a key factor in determining facility location. The fundamental blockage to
leveling costs are the PTTs (Poste Telegraphe et Telephoniques), the government or
quasi-government monopolies that provide telecommunications in various countries.
In certain countries, it is not unusual to wait months or even years for a private tele-
phone line to be installed. And high-capacity lines, such as T1, T3, and ISDN, can
take even longer. Sometimes there are limitations as to what can be connected to the
line. Many countries have begun to break up and to privatize their PTTs, which are
naturally unwilling to see their cartels dissolved.
There is some evidence that the quality and reliability of foreign telephone net-
works is much lower than that available in the United States and that effective data
transfer speeds are less, although this situation is changing. Traveling workers with
their notebook computers may notice that dial tones and timings of signals are dif-
ferent than in the United States. This may require that the modems of their comput-
28 • 20 INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS(^28) Keen, 1992, p. 599.