Analysis of the Development of the Privatization Process in the Network Industry - Telecommunication in the Czech Republic

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the process of privatization of the telecommunications sector in the Czech Republic from its beginnings to its end. This network industry continues to be of an immense economic and strategic good for the Czech economy and it remains an important source of income for the country. Telecommunication constitutes an important pillar of the world economy in the 21st century because of transfer of information. The theoretical section of this thesis will be focused on economic theories which played important roles in the period of transformation, for example the theory of property rights, theory of regulation, theory of transaction costs etc. The transformation of the Czech economy will be described and its four main pillars will be characterised: price liberalization, international trade liberalization, macroeconomic stabilization, with the emphasis put on the fourth pillar -- the changes in property rights. In the practical section of this thesis the development of the privatization process of telecommunications network industry will be analysed, in which two operators had the main role. The first operator was Český Telecom, a.s., a monopolistic operator of landline network. Český Telecom, a.s. also owned the majority of the largest mobile operator company in Central Europe -- Eurotel Praha, s.r.o. The second operator was České Radiokomunikace, a.s., a monopolistic wireless operator, which owned the majority of the second largest operator company in the Czech market -- Radiomobil, a.s. Privatization of telecommunications was one of the most complicated processes because of the considerable and persistant influence of the government on this industry.