The impact of tariff diversity on broadband diffusion : an empirical analysis

Justus Haucap, Ulrich Heimesho, and Mirjam R. J. Lange

This paper provides an empirical analysis how tariff diversity aspects fixed-line broad-band uptake, utilizing a new data set with 1497 fixed-line and 2158 mobile broad-band tariffs from 91 countries across the globe. An instrumental variable approach is applied to estimate demand, controlling for various industry and socio-economic factors. The empirical results indicate that, firstly, lower prices, more tariff diver-sity and higher income increase broadband penetration. Secondly, inter-platform competition and mobile broadband prices are not found to have a significant effect on fixed-line broadband penetration. This suggests that low prices and the diver-sity of broadband offerings are more important drivers of fixed broadband adoption than competition between various technologies (cable networks, fixed-line telephone networks, mobile networks).

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Year of publication:	2014
Other Persons:	Haucap, Justus (contributor) ; Heimeshoff, Ulrich (contributor) ; Lange, Mirjam (contributor)
Institutions:	International Telecommunications Society
Published in:	20th ITS Biennial Conference : 30 Nov. - 03 Dec. 2014, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the net and the internet; emerging markets and policies
Publisher:	Rio de Janeiro : ITS
Subject:	Broadband prices \| Tariff diversity \| Broadband demand \| Broadband penetration \| Broadband uptake \| Price discrimination \| Inter-platform competition \| Breitbandkommunikation \| Broadband communications \| Preisdifferenzierung \| Netzregulierung \| Access regulation \| Telekommunikationspolitik \| Telecommunications policy \| Telekommunikationsnetz \| Telecommunications network \| Innovationsdiffusion \| Innovation diffusion \| Zollpolitik \| Tariff policy \| Telekommunikationspreis \| Telecommunications price \| OECD-Staaten \| OECD countries