We empirically estimate the substitutability of fixed and mobile services for telecommunications access using a large, U.S. household survey1 conducted over the period 1999-2001. We take advantage of telephone price subsidy programs for low-income households to identify large, exogenous changes...

We empirically estimate the substitutability of fixed and mobile services for telecommunications access using a large, US household survey conducted over the period 2000-2001. Estimated cross-price elasticities confirm that second fixed line and mobile services are substitutes for one another....

This paper makes use of a natural experiment performed by a low-income price subsidy program, Lifeline Assistance, to estimate consumer substitution between fixed and mobile service. Variability across states and time in the Lifeline discount and the program’s eligibility requirements aids in...