This paper studies the investment decision by a monopolistic internet service provider (ISP) in different regulatory environments. We consider that the ISP could technically provide separate quality upgrades to two vertically differentiated content providers (CPs); therefore, it could...

In the European Union’s (EU) gas transmission system, transporting gas requires the booking of transmission capacities. For this purpose, long-term and short-term capacity products are offered. Short-term capacities are priced by multiplying long-term capacity tariffs with factors called...

The economics literature on Net Neutrality (NN) has been largely critical of NN regulation on the basis of theoretical findings that NN violations can be both welfare improving and welfare deteriorating, depending on the circumstances of the case in question. Thus, an ex post competition policy...

This paper analyses the determinants of aggregate per-capita investments into the telecom sector. We provide results of panel econometric estimates for EU and OECD countries covering the period from 2005 to 2013. The findings show a positive effect of infrastructure-based competition between...

Regulation undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the telecom industry. It is especially evident in the Internet fixed access regulation where regulatory authorities and telecom operators face with complex technological solutions as well as sophisticated costing methodologies in order to satisfy...

Does co-investment enhance fiber to the home (FTTH) coverage, adoption and competition? We combine several French municipality-level datasets and use a two-stage control-function approach to answer this question. In the first stage, we estimate an equilibrium model of entry that predicts the...

This paper represents a synthesis and extension of earlier work, applying the Lehr & Sicker (2018a,b) regulatory approach to the layered platform model of Claffy & Clark.3 Today's Internet ecosystem is comprised of multiple digital network platforms organized into a multi-layer architecture....

This paper provides a useful guide for telecom regulators on how to calculate the cost of an efficient operator investing in Next Generation Access (NGA) networks under regulatory uncertainty. When the regulator cannot make ex ante credible commitments, operators undertake their optimal...

This paper examines the question of whether the local access network environment stands on the cusp of significant change, one characterized by investment in new Gigabit broadband networks operated by a new breed of service providers. The highprofile Google Fiber project first deployed in the...

In rural areas in Europe, the deployment of High-Speed Broadband access networks lags behind in urban and suburban areas due to difficulties of deployment of fiber in the final meters. FTTdp networks using G.fast have been proposed as a cost-effective alternative to FTTH and FTTB [1] especially...

The Indian telecommunication market is second largest in the world and is growing rapidly. The government is taking several measures such as National optical fiber network (NOFN) project, public WiFi pilot to bridge the gap of digital divide in order to provide Internet services throughout the...

Unbundling of vertically integrated utilities has become an integral element in the regulation of network industries and has been implemented in many jurisdictions. The idea of separating the network, as the natural monopoly, from downstream retailing, which may be exposed to competition, is...

Zero rating and sponsored data have recently been introduced as new tariff options in mobile telecommunications markets. Both practices exempt data traffic of specific Internet services from an Internet user's download limit and thus allow for unlimited consumption of the respective content....

The principle of net neutrality was adopted by the European Union as a regulation promoting equality among all data packets in the Internet. Considering net neutrality from a purely economic viewpoint, however, the general possibility to prioritize data packets would likely lead to a more...

In the face of recent refugee migration, early integration of asylum seekers into the labor market has been proposed as an important mechanism for easing their economic and social lot in the short as well as in the long term. However, little is known about the policies that foster or hamper...

Behavioural Industrial Organisation (BIO) incorporates psychological insights into traditional models of market interactions between firms and consumers. These models often have high predictive power relative to models based on the classical paradigm of the "rational" consumer in markets where...

Why different groups have different opinions on network neutrality? Can a group impose their opinion to others and have their claims respected by the regulatory authorities? This paper aims to present some insights about the network neutrality regulation in Brazil and discuss the challenges...

We introduce a model of asymmetric competition where two network operators with different investment costs may build an internet access infrastructure and where a virtual operator provides services through third-party access. We show that the virtual operator requests access from the low cost...

Since June 15, 2017, mobile network operators in the European Economic Area may not impose surcharges for making telephone calls, sending text messages, or using data services in other EEA countries. The regulation was designed to create a digital domestic market without adversely affecting...

We use panel data on 36,104 municipalities in metropolitan France over the period 2010-2014 to estimate two models of entry into local markets by: (i) alternative operators using wholesale access to the legacy copper network via local loop unbundling (LLU), and (ii) the incumbent and two...

This chapter provides a simple theoretical framework to analyze optimal provision of quality-of-service of the internet by a monopolistic internet service provider (ISP) in the presence of vertical integration. There are two vertically differentiated content providers (CPs), and one of them is...

In this paper we study how the coexistence of access regulations for legacy (copper) and fiber networks shapes the incentives to invest in network infrastructure. To this end, we develop a theoretical model explaining investment incentives by incumbent telecom operators and heterogeneous...

In September 2016, the European Commission (EC) published its proposal for a directive establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) - with one key aim being the provision of sufficient incentives for infrastructure investments into high-speed communication networks. Based on a...

In this paper we study how the coexistence of access regulations for legacy (copper)and fiber networks shapes the incentives to invest in network infrastructure. To this end, we develop a theoretical model explaining investment incentives by incumbent telecom operators and heterogeneous entrants...

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of OTT media streaming services on demand for FTTH. Our approach involves analyzing data that comprise the respondents' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for FTTH. The analysis decomposes the WTP by individual characteristics and OTT media service...

This article investigates how the transition of broadband Internet connectivity to an essential utility has influenced the development of universal access objectives and policies in Canada. In order to better understand the interplay between economic reality of broadband as an essential social...

Utility providers, such as energy companies and railway operators, have been long emphasised as driving competition and facilitating investment in broadband markets. Nevertheless, their involvement and contribution to broadband development has varied significantly over time. In the late 1990s,...

In this paper, we study how the coexistence of access regulations for legacy (copper) and fiber networks shapes the incentives to invest in network infrastructure. To this end, we develop a theoretical model explaining investment incentives by incumbent telecom operators and heterogeneous...