For many years electronic communications has been one of the most important areas of policy intervention for the European Union. Liberalisation and privatisation of the telecommunications industry have been very important topics of the policy debate in the two decades starting from 1990 to 2010....

Technological progress allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to carry out network manage-ment practices in a discriminatory fashion without being detected by their customers. This creates an opportunity that providers will exploit this information asymmetry in an opportunistic way by blocking...

Network neutrality and alleged discriminatory practices on the part of ISPs regarding the transmission of Internet data packets has been the subject of notable scholarly discussion and appears to be a widespread phenomenon. However, it is noteworthy that actual consumer discrimination has only...

Telecommunications investment has been identified as one with a strong potential to spur economic growth and create employment. Investments in telecommunications infrastructure could not only provide a short-term boost to the economy, but also lay the groundwork for long-term improved growth and...

Radio spectrum is a vital asset and resource for mobile network operators. With spectrum in the 800 and 900 MHz bands coverage can be provided with fewer base station sites compared to higher frequency bands like 2.1 and 2.6 GHz. With more spectrum, i.e. wider bandwidth, operators can offer...

The transition from analogue to the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTV) in Europe is planned to be completed by the end of the year 2012. The DTV spectrum allocation is such that there are a number of TV channels which cannot be used for additional high power broadcast transmitters due to...

The ladder of investment is a regulatory approach that has been used by European National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), in order to foster infrastructure competition among operators. the idea is to force incumbent operators to open several levels of access to their network in such a way that...

Our research starts from the general observation that everywhere around the globe, an increasing number of regulatory tasks, traditionally falling under the responsibility of government, are being transferred to so-called independent regulatory authorities (i.e. independent from market actors,...

This paper considers the likely combinatorial effects of U.S. deregulatory broadband policies and the evolution of law as applied to corporations as a general matter. It explains how legal developments in both areas have dismantled bodies of law or doctrines that had developed to address...

Network operators of competing infrastructures in European electronic communications markets face asymmetric regulation: incumbent telecommunications firms are required to open their networks for retail broadband competition, while cable companies have no such obligation. Furthermore, for...