Separation Anxieties: Structural Separation and Technological Diffusion in Nascent Fibre Networks

Abstract

Vertical separation of upstream network operations from downstream retail activities, as the most extreme form of access regulation, has long been considered a legitimate regulatory remedy against use of market power in upstream infrastructure markets to engage in price-and non-price discrimination to foreclose competition in downstream retail markets. However, the remedy is increasingly being mandated for new networks, sometimes before any investment has been made. This paper uses theories of General Purpose Technologies and regulatory economics to consider how vertical separationcompared to both access regulation and no regulation-poses challenges to the ability to maximise scale economies at the early stage of a network life-cycle. This

Strategic Use of Zero-rating of Mobile Data

“…Thus, balance is required between short-term and long-term factors. Furthermore, what is optimal at one time of the ecosystem lifecycle may not be optimal at another [33,34]. To the extent that social preferences may override the economic considerations, then the costs of imposing those preferences must be recognised in both the total welfare foregone, and the transfers that those preferences engender between ecosystem stakeholders.…”