A few recent contributions have claimed that in high-tech industries—where innovation is often cumulative and products include many components which are protected by patents in the hands of many different patent holders—the cost of obtaining all necessary licenses is too high. Some have even...

We analyze demand for prepaid cellular voice and short message service (SMS) in South Africa by means of a demand-and-supply structural model based on a multinomial specification fitted to a cross-sectional data set on Vodacom customers collected in 2005. We find that consumers are very...

This paper presents results from a calibrated welfare model of the UK mobile telephony market which includes many mobile networks; calls to and from the fixed network; networkbased price discrimination; and call externalities. The analysis focuses on the short-run effects of adopting lower...

In this Paper, I explore the relationship between native language and use of the Internet and examine whether English is likely to retain its first-mover advantage of a large installed base of English language websites. I study this issue empirically using a unique dataset on (home) Internet use...

Text messaging has become an important revenue component for European and Asian mobile operators. We develop a simple model of demand for mobile services incorporating the existence of call externalities and network effects. We show that when incoming messages and calls stimulate outgoing...

We study the determinants of the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services in the European Union in a logistic model of technology diffusion. We find that the transition from the analogue to the digital technology during the early nineties, and the corresponding increase in spectrum...

We analyse the effects of government policies, such as entry regulation and standard setting, on the evolution of an industry, the global mobile telecommunications markets during 1981-1997. Among other results, we find that countries that issue first licenses at later dates converge rather...

This Paper examines competition between a dominant network and a challenging network with third-degree or perfect price-discrimination, allowing for arbitrary configurations of network externalities, as well as horizontal and vertical product differentiation. Domination in the coordination game...

In February 2008, British Telecommunications (BT) introduced automatically renewing, or ‘rollover’, contracts into the UK market for fixed-voice telephone service. These contracts included a 12-month Minimum Contract Period (MCP) with associated Early Termination Charges (ETCs). Unless...

I suggest explanations for the apparently puzzling bidding in the year 2000 British and German 3G telecom auctions. Relative-performance maximisation may have been important, but the outcome of the British auction seems to have been efficient. This paper bundles my comments on two papers...