We evaluate the welfare effects of the Roam-Like-At-Home regulation, which drastically re-duced the price of accessing the mobile internet for EU residents when traveling abroad in the European Economic Area. Estimates from individual-level usage data suggest that consumer surplus increased by...

In this paper, we analyze how wholesale access fees of a crucial input can be utilized to influence demands for products of different technologies and the deployment sequence between an incumbent and entrant firm. In a setting of multi-product competition with horizontally differentiated...

Track access charges are the main driver of infrastructure costs for rail operators in the rail transport sector, accounting for up to 88 percent of costs. This paper analyzes track access charges of 28 EU countries with the respective trajectories of the company forms employing panel...

After the enactment of net neutrality regulation, devices are considered to be the remaining weak link to achieving a ‘neutral’ (non-discriminatory) internet access. We highlight that discriminatory conducts similar to those condemned under the net neutrality regulation can also occur at...

We address the question whether and on what conditions will an access-seeker be provided with access to a necessary input. We study this question in a model in which multiple vertically-integrated firms - potential access providers - compete. Although it might seem in such a setting that...

We study the impact of access regulation in a telecommunications market on an entrant's decision whether to invest in a network or ask for access when the regulator cannot observe its potential demand. Since the entrant has incentives to not compete vigorously right after entry in order to...

This article reports an evaluation of the impact of horizontal ownership concentration on access pricing outcomes. Historical data of post-acquisition impacts on firms’ access outcomes have enabled analysis for the entire local exchange sector of the United States telecommunications industry....

In the various arenas of the Internet Governance debate, one of the points frequently highlighted is the need the need to maintain an 'open Internet'. Despite the common use of the term, which can be understood as a synonym for net neutrality, its meaning varies amongst the diverse cast of...

As infrastructures that connect the energy source with the energy use, energy networks constitute a crucial element of national and global energy systems. They also play a key role in helping with balancing supply and demand, thus ensuring that energy is not only available in the right places...

This article examines the formation of the first internet exchange point (IXP) in Mexico amid the implementation of telecommunication reforms and asymmetric regulations in a market with low level of competition. An IXP is defined as a shared interconnection facility and a key internet governance...

Adequately designed prices are essential to achieve efficient coordination between the electricity network and market participants. However, consumer prices comprise several, possibly distorting price components. In an analytical model, we examine different regulatory settings, consisting of...

We examine the performance attributes of a merchant transmission investment framework that relies on market driven' transmission investment to provide the infrastructure to support competitive wholesale markets for electricity. Under a stringent set of assumptions, the merchant investment model...

How does mobile internet access affect the desire to emigrate and migration plans? To answer this question, we combine survey data on more than 600,000 individuals from 110 countries with data on worldwide 3G mobile internet rollout. We show that an increase in mobile internet access increases...

Network neutrality regulations are intended to preserve the Internet as a non-discriminatory, public network and an open platform for innovation. Whereas the U.S. recently reversed its regulations, thus returning to a less strict regime, the EU has maintained its course and recently revised...

This paper investigates the impacts of the current roaming rules on domestic competition and welfare. We consider a model for two countries in which each country has two operators that compete in the retail market for access services and also in the wholesale market for roaming. We first derive...

The roam-like-at-home regulation (RLAH) eliminated all mobile roaming surcharges to Eu-ropean consumers travelling within the European Economic Area (EEA). We measure the causal impact of the regulation on EEA roaming traffic, using the Rest of the World as a control group. We find large and...

Self-supply can destabilize the finance of a distribution network. This paper analyses under which circumstances the tariff structure of a distribution network is stable or unstable under pressure of self-supply and provides recommendation how to change the tariff structure to restore stability...

We empirically assess the impact of the EU roaming regulation on mobile operators' average revenues per user (ARPU) and retail prices. Using a differences-in-difference approach, hedonic price regressions and detailed operator and plan-level data we find that the regulation decreased mobile...

As part of the 2019 frequency allocation process for mobile communications, the Federal Network Agency required network providers to achieve a certain level of mobile network coverage for the population. Cooperation between different network providers was also permitted for the first time,...

Recent prominent judicial opinions have assumed that common carriers have few to no First Amendment rights and that calling an actor a common carrier or public accommodation could justify limiting its right to exclude and mandating that it provide nondiscriminatory access. A review of the...

The emergence and growth of a collection of large and global private networks operated by big tech companies like Google, Facebook, or Amazon have thoroughly disrupted the Internet ecosystem. While these developments have shifted and blurred the lines between public and private networking, they...

This paper finds that coherent regulatory policies can boost investment in network industries of OECD economies. Rate-of-return regulation is generally thought to result in overinvestment, while incentive regulation is believed to entail underinvestment. Yet, previous empirical work has...

This paper analyzes the effects of net neutrality regulation on investment incentives for Internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers (CPs), and their implications for social welfare. We show that the ISP's decision on the introduction of discrimination across content depends on a...

This paper presents a basic framework to assess whether structural (vertical) separation is desirable. It is discussed within the setting of fixed telecommunications markets. From an economist's perspective, the key question that underlies the case for structural separation is: is there a...

Performance-based regulation (PBR) is influenced by the Bayesian and non-Bayesian incentive mechanisms. While Bayesian incentives are impractical, the insights from their properties can be combined with practical non-ayesian mechanisms for application to transmission pricing. This combination...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of market-oriented institutional reforms in German network industries. A disaggregated approach is chosen, which differentiates between network services, infrastructure management and network infrastructure. The gradual opening of network...

Successful network utility privatisation requires incentive-based regulation that allows investment to be adequately rewarded from unsubsidised revenues while maintaining quality, and restructuring that permits effective competition for the network services. The potential for success and the...

Launching and stimulating competition in telecommunications markets is an important policy goal. It contains two elements: to encourage entry and to make competition effective such that consumers benefit. The first one requires that entrants can make profits after investing in infrastructure so...

We explain the recent events in the German market for online access using a model of a regulated monopoly renting phone lines to retailers. Retailers offer either a linear or a flat tariff to consumers. Consumer heterogeneity leads to adverse selectiion. We show why market entry for flatrate...

The regulation of telecommunications, railroads, and other network industries has been based on mandatory unbundling and facilities sharing - entrants have the option to lease part or all of incumbents' facilities if and when they desire, at rates determined by regulators. This flexibility is of...

This paper addresses the impact on investment incentives of the network sharing arrangements mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, with a focus on the implications of irreversible investment. Although the goal is to promote competition, the sharing rules now in place reduce incentives...

In recent years, the demand for electricity has increased sharply due to the superiority of electricity over all other types of energy, and the expansion of electricity production and transmission has been severely limited due to limited resources, environmental constraints, and lack of...

In February 2020, the United States began facing a disaster the likes of which it had never experienced. People were asked to shelter-in-place in their homes and rely on their network connection in order to go to school, continue working, participate in commerce, socialize with those outside...

wo decades after the net neutrality debated started, the internet ecosystem has evolved and additional gatekeepers have emerged. In order to access content from content and service providers (CSPs), consumers have to pass through a whole internet access value chain, comprised of broadband...