In this Policy Paper, we analyze the effects of quot;network neutralityquot; proposals that seek to mandate an inflexible set of rules that would foreclose or severely limit many market transactions. Our model reveals that under plausible conditions, rules that prohibit efficient commercial...

The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed net neutrality rules would, among other things, prohibit broadband access providers from prioritizing traffic, charging differential prices based on the priority status, imposing congestion-related charges, and adopting business models that...

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and empirical literature on the regulation of natural monopolies. It covers alternative definitions of natural monopoly, public interest regulatory goals, alternative regulatory institutions, price regulation with full...

In this Perspective, I review arguments that broadband providers may be anticompetitively imposing usage-based pricing to protect their profits from “core” services (e.g., voice, video, texting) against the proliferation of “over the top” services and, as such, new price regulation of...

This article analyses whether the economics of Next Generation Access Networks for broadband services allow for the market to be competitive in Europe in absence of ex ante regulation of wholesale network access. This is done by two methods: cost modeling of operators with different technologies...

It has been stated by certain industry observers that broadband access network economics are becoming a natural monopoly in Europe. We have analysed the cost function of access networks for different technologies and have found that the assertion that they meet natural monopoly properties in all...

Firms that wish to offer wireline, multichannel video programming services in direct competition with cable incumbents are being faced with calls by those incumbents and policymakers to "build-out" to entire communities as a pre-condition of receiving a franchise. This "build-out" requirement is...

This POLICY PAPER presents an economic model showing how incumbent local exchange carriers may deter efficient facilities-based entry for high capacity loop facilities through the use of quantity-discount contracts for Special Access services. Since efficient entry is deterred, these contracts...

This Policy Bulletin examines the Federal Communications Commission's decision to remove "new" Bell Operating Company fiber and "hybrid-fiber" facilities from the unbundling requirements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act as part of its Triennial Review. This Policy Bulletin demonstrates that...

Fifty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter warned the Federal Communications Commission not to view competition in an abstract, sterile way. To illustrate the dangers of using such an abstract approach to the key issue of ILEC market power, this paper uses the Commission's...