The Assessment: European Networks--Competition, Interconnection, and Regulation

Nature or nurture: why do railroads carry greater freight share in the United States than in Europe?

“…However, certain obstacles, such as equipment compatibility and interoperability, have proven more difficult than originally expected. There is considerable variation among the member states in the progress they have made towards separation and in the strategies employed (Kain 1998;Dunn and Perl 2001;Helm 2001;Haubrich 2001;Henry and Quinet 1999). Sweden and Britain pioneered vertical unbundling (Izquierdo and Vassallo 2004).…”

Contested Contestability: Competition Policy and the Development of Communications Satellite Broadcasting in Japan

“…Based on experiences in the UK, Cave argues that government intervention in broadcast markets should be limited to competition policy in order to achieve competitive markets (Cave 2005). In European telecommunications markets meanwhile, Helm suggests that sector-specific competition policy may be required as general competition policy is poorly designed to address natural monopolies (Helm 2001). An extreme case can be seen in the Australian government's contentious 2007 decision to build and own its "National Broadband Network" after proposals from incumbent carriers failed to impress the government of their ability to maximise consumer welfare.…”

Regulatory forbearance: why did Oftel find it so hard?

“…Helm (2001) argues that ''The result [of trends in the 1990's] in electricity is that around seven companies now dominate a market of some 350 m customers and that further competition will probably be confined largely to a game between a small number of dominant (regional) monopolists or oligopolists. In an important sense, this will be a competition with not enough playersy '' 31 This suggests a picture of electricity and gas industries in continental Europe that is more similar to the UK telecom market than the simple contrast between BT and NGT 32 might suggest.…”