The Internet was a catalyst for refiguring the previous models of media relationships. For many, the Internet is a medium that liberates individuals from the centralised and asymmetrical power structures of traditional mass media and other social institutions in particular, the boundaries set by the nation and the state. For other people, the Internet increases the capacity for surveillance and control. This dissertation argues for a fluid conception of the operations of power and resistance on the Internet that takes into account the various discourses which play a part in determining agency and subjectivity. It examines and balances the narratives of liberation and oppression against each other: for, just as the developments in Internet technology contribute to changes in discourse, so too existing or prior discursive limits and relations of power affect Internet culture and technology. In the process of analysing the interplay of different discourses on the Internet, this dissertation takes into account transnational and national cultural flows and the insights that conceptual work on globalisation, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism can provide. The case studies are concerned with change and centre on the use of the Internet to effect this change; they include: the Singaporean Internet, a ‘thread’ about Asian culture and Australia, the representation of oppression and the formation of Chinese diasporic collectivities, and anti capitalist networks. Through these case studies, the dissertation examines the degree to which the nation-state can regulate and affect the discourses at play on the Internet as well as the agency of participants in countering and maintaining these discourses. This dissertation also analyses activists’ use of the Internet to form transnational networks. It discusses the limitations of their work including problems with representation.

The topic of presented thesis is the subject of mobile Internet connectivity in the Czech Republic. The text is divided into two main parts. The first theoretical part is focused on an individual description of the technologies (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA) which are being offered in the Czech Republic by the operators. The greatest emphasis is put on a description of UMTS and HSDPA. The second part is practical; it describes the offers of each respective Czech operator focusing on the third-generation network or particularly the network operator with the highest connection speed. The thesis compares current offers against those in the year 2006. The next practical part is aimed at creating a methodology for testing mobile connections and its applications for UMTS and CDMA operator's tariffs at T-Mobile and Telefónica O2. The contribution of this work is to provide a comprehensive picture of a mobile Internet connection in the means of technological background and practical applications.