This paper analyses the effects of universal service obligations, such as uniform pricing, coverage constraints and price caps, on markets newly opened to competition, e.g. broadband services. We show that the requirement of uniform pricing has strong repercussions on coverage decisions. Imposed...

The European Union will be introducing a Europe-wide patent, the so-called Community Patent. Its aim is to foster innovative activity, but strategic effects between firms competing in R&D have not been considered in the official discourse. We show that, even if these are taken into account, the...

In this paper, we analyze the specific national broadband plans which have been developed by some European governments to foster the deployment of next generation access networks, namely in France, Italy, and Portugal. In particular, we discuss the strategies adopted to achieve wide fibre...

We introduce a flexible model of telecommunications network competition with non-uniform calling patterns, which account for the fact that customers tend to make most calls to a small subset of people. Equilibrium call prices are distorted away from marginal cost, and competitive intensity is...

Due to technological convergence, multiple infrastructures can now offer broadband or triple-play services, while the existing access regulation is based on a single essential network. We show that continued asymmetric access regulation of one network does not control sufficiently for market...

We introduce a flexible model of telecommunications network competition with non-uniform calling patterns, which account for the fact that customers tend to make most calls to a small set of contacts. Equilibrium call prices are distorted away from marginal cost, and competitive intensity is...

We present a tractable model of competition between an arbitrary number of interconnected communications networks in the presence of tariff-mediated network externalities, call externalities, and cost and market share asymmetries. On the theory side, we provide a criterion for stability in...

In Europe Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) are being subject to reduction to reflect actual costs, marginal or incremental, of calls termination in mobiles nets. This is considered as an intermediate step to adopt the “bill-and-keep” system. Other countries around the globe, such as New...

Two-part tariffs, when used at the retail level, increase efficiency by lowering the price of marginal units. The same potential for higher efficiency exists for two-part tariffs at wholesale level for a given market structure, but the fixed part of the wholesale tariff can negatively affect the...