Politicians connected to elites who anticipated benefiting from the 1866 Post Roads Act overcame the problem of collective action and passed pro-consumer legislation over the objections of a concentrated economic interest. Mancur Olson's (1965, 1982) theory on the cost of collective action...

This paper identifies substantial flaws in how U.S. government agencies and courts assess the impact of proposed mergers by firms using broadband networks to reach consumers. Based on current market definitions, consumer impact assessments and economic doctrine, antitrust enforcement agencies...

Europe has gone through a wave of liberalisation in the last two decades. Measures were first adopted to that effect in the telecommunications sector, which has since then become the sector of electronic communications. They were extended, afterwards, in their substance, to other economic...

This paper estimates demand for quadruple play mobile tariffs using a database of subscribers to a single mobile operator from a single town in a European country which has full coverage with both ADSL and FTTH broadband technologies. Based on the demand estimation we find that consumer...

In this paper, we consider the argument that Carterfone-type rules are required in response to mobile operators' use of term contracts, early termination fees, and allegedly restrictive handset certification and support policies. First, we show that such practices by mobile operators are...

Mobile-only users are usually perceived as a consequence of fixed-mobile substitution. This study uses a unique dataset based on a survey in France, combined with interviewee's telecommunications billing data, to reveal heterogeneous consumer preferences for fixed services. With the same mixed...

We estimate the interaction between fixed and mobile usage both for voice and data services using consumer level data from April 2013 to March 2014 in a European country. We find a signi cant proportion of fixed voice consumption could be substituted by mobile voice, and vice versa. However, a...

Mobile-only users are usually considered as a consequence of fi xed-mobile substitution. Via a unique dataset based on a a large European country survey and consumers invoice data, this study reveals heterogeneous preferences for fixed services among consumers. The data is fitted in a mixed...

In 2005, Ofcom, then telecommunications regulator in the United Kingdom, implemented functional separation of British Telecom plc (BT), separating its wholesale and retail services. BT established a division within the company, Openreach, to provide equal access to its local access network and...

This paper reviews current regulatory approaches designed to correct market failures and distribute the benefits of liberalization to consumers in recently liberalised network industries. Present evaluations of the liberalisation process show that opening up markets to more competition has not...