The
Federal Government is concerned with the weakening of the domestic tele-
communications equipment sector and how that weakness
can negatively affect economic
growth and national security.
In particular, three key subsector
s have been identified as
being at risk: optical core network, router/switch, and wireless equipment suppliers.
Researchers for the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) were tasked to
develop a framework that supports government decision makers in evaluating policy
options to meet national competitiveness, innovation,
and supply
-chain security goals for
these three critical subsectors. The intent of the framework is to enable the aggregation of
various sources of information,
including ongoing
efforts to model key markets
, into a
single
, consistent view that
enables decision makers to better identify
effective
policy
actions
. A
key hypothesis
of this work is that when trends are identified that result in
disruptions to an established subsector,
opportunities for policies to effect change
are
increased
, thus enabling domestic or favorable suppliers to compete and increase market
share.
This hypothesis would especially apply to relatively mature and stable markets
, such
as the telecommunications e
quipment industry.