Without regulation, market power in mobile termination is likely to result in mobile termination rates (MTRs) in excess of costs and cross-subsidised prices for mobile subscription/handsets. Mobile network operators (MNOs) argue that subsidisation is efficient, being justified by, inter alia, a...

In 2009 the Australian government launched what it claims to be "the single largest infrastructure project in Australia’s history". The project involves building an ultra-fast national broadband network (the "NBN") relying mainly on fibre-to-the-premises ("FTTP") technology. The project is...

Digital markets worldwide are in rapid flux. The Internet and World Wide Web have traditionally evolved in a largely deregulated environment, but recently governments have shown great interest in this rapidly developing sector and are imposing regulations for a variety of reasons that are...

Handset subsidies are prominent in many mobile markets, and are often justified on the basis of network externalities arising from new subscribers joining with a benefit to existing subscribers in addition to their private valuation. An associated argument is that a tax on termination to fund...

A potential entrant wishes to offer a long-distance service by establishing its own long-distance 'upstream' facility and using the incumbent's local ('downstream') network to provide reticulation of its calls, and the issue is to determine an efficient interconnection price for the entrant's...

The case for timed local calls (TLC) is overwhelming on both equity and efficiency grounds. However, Telecom's example of a pricing structure for (TLC) would probably have raised revenue substantially. The efficiency effects depend on the structure of local prices and on what is done with the...

The Australian Housing Allowance Voucher Experiment (HAVE) appears to be a radical change in Government policy towards low-income housing. There are moves to remove subsidies in kind, by raising government dwelling rents to market levels, and to replace them with housing allowances payable to...