In this paper I review the Dutch UMTS-auction that took place in the summer of 2000 and which, in contrast to the UK and German auctions, was generally considered to be a major flop. I analyse the policy process leading to the auction as well as the bidding behaviour in the auction, and provide...

State owned corporations have been serial offenders of competition law. Of the 21 abuse ofdominance complaints referred to the Tribunal between October 1999 and September 2016,13 involved former or current SOCs. SOCs often hold monopoly positions and control essentialinfrastructure and the...

An unprecedented “boom and bust” investment cycle occurred in the high-tech industries at the turn of the century, in particular in the telecommunications sector. Regulatory reforms and technological innovation fuelled expectations of robust growth in traffic, revenue and earnings....

In February 1998 the Dutch government auctioned licences to operate mobile telecommunications networks according to the DCS-1800 technology. Two "national" licences and sixteen "regional" ones were auctioned by using a variant of the simultaneous, multiple round auction that was proposed by...

In a referendum on 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) voted for ‘Brexit’, i.e., to leave the European Union (EU). After some delay the government will invoke Article 50 TEU, which would begin a two-year period of negotiation for a withdrawal agreement, after which the EU treaties would...

Mobile telecommunications has been a considerable success with consumers, yet markets are oligopolies designed by governments and by industry, with many flaws, including limited ability to regulate prices, quality of service and coverage. Markets have been partially opened to competition, with...

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...

Der Telekommunikationssektor ist diejenige Netzindustrie, die innerhalb der Europäischen Union dem wohl ambitioniertesten Reformprozeß unterworfen wurde. Deregulierung und Privatisierung sind die wesentlichen Bausteine, von denen dauerhaft niedrigere Preisniveaus, beschleunigter technischer...