This paper discusses the development of local loop unbundling in telecommunications markets throughout the European Union. It elaborates on the regulatory framework in Europe and provides an overview of recent experiences in Europe. Different types of unbundling, allowing for different types of...

This article discusses changes in the U.S. telecommunications market over the last decade and argues that increasing competitive substitution from wireless and internetbased communications has undermined the rationale for conventional monopoly regulation of incumbent local telephone carriers....

Is the United States in full retreat from internationally recognized regulatory best practice? Or is it instead headed toward some different destination – "dancing to the beat of a different drummer"? Where is this likely to lead?

Convergence is a multi-facetted phenomenon affecting the technological basis of information and communication industries, the boundaries of existing and new markets, and the organization of service providers. Convergence in substitutes will tend to increase the intensity of competition but...

Telecommunication economic analysis has largely relied upon a conventional economic framework that has its roots in neoclassical analysis that emerged almost a hundred years ago, and has contributed to reshaping the direction of economic policies by attacking the premises of the 1996...

Regulation is presumed to be designed to avoid (potential) market failures,usually because of firms' market power, the consequence of which leads to a decrease in economic welfare. However, the cost of regulation may outweigh any effects policy makers have on the firm due to administrative...

The future of the information society crucially depends on investments in upgrading existing infrastructures and building new networks. Traditional cost-based regulation, which focuses on issues of static efficiency and service-based competition necessarily has negative effects on innovation...

This paper looks at a new body of literature that deals with two-sided markets and focuses on the Internet Service Provider (ISP) segment. ISPs seem to act as a platform enabling transactions between web sites and end consumers. We propose a strategic guide for ISPs that covers features of...

Communication via mobile telephones is widespread in East Asian metropolis such as Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo. In the last ten years, the number of mobile telephone users has increased dramatically, with the younger generation in particular depending on the services available via mobile telephones....

Mobile telephony is described as a "two-sided" market where customers are seen as senders and receivers of communications that are mutually beneficial both to callers and receivers. This has implications in terms of market definition and market power. The economics of mobile call termination is...