The benefits of advanced information and communication services are increasingly dependent on the quality of the available connectivity. This paper examines the factors that influence the quality of fixed and mobile broadband access in OECD countries. Drawing on institutional economics, the...

The positive effects of broadband networks and services on productivity and economic growth are well established. Looking at broadband as an engine of economic prosperity, the OECD and its member states are seeking to foster its widespread adoption. However, which public policies best promote...

Focusing on the effects of policy on investment and innovation this paper examines whether the conceptual foundations of sector regulation are aligned with the current technological and economic conditions of advanced communications. One conclusion is that the prevailing theories and practices...

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an important determinant of productivity growth and innovation. This study examines the effects of sector regulation on innovation in telecommunications and related information industries. A typology of innovation processes in ICT industries...

Digital markets worldwide are in rapid flux. The Internet and World Wide Web have traditionally evolved in a largely deregulated environment, but recently governments have shown great interest in this rapidly developing sector and are imposing regulations for a variety of reasons that are...

Botnets – networks of machines infected with malicious software – are widely regarded as a critical security threat. Measures that directly address the end users who own the infected machines are useful, but have proven insufficient to reduce the overall problem. Recent studies have shifted...

Malicious software, or malware for short, has become a critical security threat to all who rely on the Internet for their daily business, whether they are large organisations or home users. While originating in criminal behaviour, the magnitude and impact of the malware threat are also...

Building on attempts during the 1980s to establish principles of Open Network Architecture (ONA), unbundling obligations became a cornerstone of the framework for local competition devised by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Several of the regulations developed by the Federal Communications...

This paper examines the prospects and limits of policies towards information and communications technologies (ICTs). The co-evolution of technological, economic, and political factors that has affected the information network infrastructure during the past three decades has transformed it from a...

Convergence is a multi-facetted phenomenon affecting the technological basis of information and communication industries, the boundaries of existing and new markets, and the organization of service providers. Convergence in substitutes will tend to increase the intensity of competition but...