Martin Cave

• Imperial College London

Forty years have passed since an inflation-adjusted price cap, widely called RPI-X, was proposed as a way of controlling prices in the UK’s newly privatised monopoly telecommunications company by a form of incentive regulation. The paper traces developments since then in several jurisdictions, within the context of a wider field of changing regulat...

There is much recent debate about extending the purposes of investor-owned firms to embrace the broader interests of a variety of stakeholders. Regulatory decisions in network industries already involve extensive use of centralised social cost-benefit analysis to capture some aspects of public value. A gap remains that might be filled by a decentra...

Access to mobile communications in Mexico is heavily skewed in favour of those with higher incomes. In 2014, 80% of the highest 10 percent (decile) in the income distribution had access to mobile communications, while only 30% of the lowest decile did. The same figures for 2016 are 84% and 40%. This report sets out to review some of these numbers a...

The European telecommunications sector has been radically transformed in the past 25 years: from a group of state monopolies to a set of increasingly competitive markets. In this paper we summarize how this process has unfolded—for both fixed and mobile telecommunications—by focusing on the evolution of the regulatory framework and by drawing some...

We study the impact of spectrum auction design on the prices paid by telecommunications operators for two decades across 85 countries. Our empirical strategy combines information about competition in the local market, the level of adoption and a wide range of socio-economic indicators and process specific variables. Using a micro dataset of almost...

The hypothesis is put forward that, after three decades of stability, there is now the prospect of significant change in the vertical and horizontal structure of the mobile market place. On the supply side, significant factors are, first, the availability of a new and very powerful form of mobile connectivity in the shape of 5G, and second, softwar...

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The first spectrum auctions generally assigned the chosen number of licences of predetermined size to the highest bidders, but auctions now allow a greater choice of outcomes, with bidders with existing spectrum portfolios competing, with others, for multiple lots, often in different bands. Modern auctions also contain design features expressly dir...

We study the impact of spectrum auction design on the prices paid by telecommunications operators for two decades across 85 countries. Our empirical strategy combines information about competition in the local market, the level of adoption and a wide range of socio-economic indicators and process specific variables. Using a micro dataset of almost...

The past nearly 40 years have seen major developments in telecommunications networks and services, and in how they are regulated. This paper describes innovations in UK telecommunications regulation which have taken place over the period, broken down into stages, beginning with the regulation of the former monopolist by an independent regulator und...

Spectrum should be allocated among the various services which use it to maximise the aggregate incremental value (private and external) of those services minus the (non-spectrum) costs of supply. The external value of services such as broadcasting and mobile communications may be significant, yet we know that spectrum assignment by auction, for exa...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider circumstances when technological neutrality in fixed broadband (according firms the power to determine technological choices untrammelled by regulation or the operation of specific incentives) should be adopted. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the likely effect of such a policy on...

With this definitive guide to radio spectrum management, you will learn from leading practitioners how spectrum can be managed effectively and made available both now and in the future. All aspects of spectrum management are covered in depth, from the fundamentals of radio spectrum and technical and economic basics, to detail on methods such as auc...

Regulation has a pervasive and growing effect on the economy and society. According to public interest theories, it improves welfare by enhancing economic efficiency and achieving equity goals. According to the “economic” theory of regulation, interventions are bought and sold to the highest bidder. Regulation, thus, becomes another dimension of co...

Despite the secular increase in regulation, there are important illustrations of its opposite – deregulation. As well as general assaults on needless regulation, or “red tape,” there are many examples of the more focused elimination of legal and regulatory restrictions on entry into certain economic activities. Example can be found in professional...

Net neutrality has been an issue that has preoccupied consumers, firms and regulators over the past decade. It concerns the financial and qualitative terms on which unaffiliated content and application providers ("CAPs") may have their content delivered by the local access provider or Internet Service Providers ("ISPs"). The paper discusses the ter...

The ladder of investment was adopted by many European (and other) regulators in the era of copper networks as a means of implementing unbundling in a way which progressively promotes competitive providers׳ infrastructure investment in fixed networks. The paper reviews the evidence of its application and effects, in comparison with the most likely a...

The new telecommunications regulator in Mexico, Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT), recently issued a public consultation on its draft regulation for must carry and must offer (MCMO) conditions in the broadcasting sector. This, together with the recent Constitutional reforms on Telecommunications and Broadcasting, represents an unprecede...

Unbundling bottlenecks in the value chain of network industries has made it possible to introduce retail and some upstream competition into the sectors, but access to the unbundled assets, and to certain natural inputs, is generally achieved by a command and control administrative process which defines access products and sets administrative prices...

This paper discusses the role of system operators (SOs) in four infrastructure industries: electricity, natural gas, railways and water supply. It describes the types of system operator and their role as co-ordinating entities. The paper relates the role of SOs to the problems of economic discrimination that arise in partially or wholly vertically...

The authors set out and estimate a dynamic logit model of viewing behaviour, which relates a channel's share ratings and audience composition to the programme types that it and competing channels are offering. Using the model on U.K. data, they evaluate the likely effects of changes in the programme types offered by current channels on the socioeco...

The authors review recent scholarly and policy initiatives in respect of media pluralism and argue that contradictions between policy objectives, in analytical approaches and deficiencies in some established methodologies mean that robust conclusions have been hard to secure. They argue that concerns about diminishing pluralism are likely to grow i...

The European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on the award of concession contracts has sparked vigorous public debate and intense opposition. This Directive is controversial because of the nature of the policy it proposes and because the sectors involved are highly sensitive. This Forum examines the weaknesses of the Commission’s proposal and...

Regulation is a key concern of industries, consumers, citizens, and governments alike. Building on the success of the first edition, Understanding Regulation, Second Edition provides the reader with an introduction to key debates and discussions in the field of regulation from a number of disciplinary perspectives, looking towards law, economics, b...

This paper examines regulatory governance in the context of African telecommunications. Though there is already a substantial literature devoted to the regulatory practices in developing countries, it generally conceptualizes the quality of regulation ...

In many countries, the telecommunications sector is subjected to special treatment in respect of taxes, in the form of additional taxes or import duties. In recent years this has been combined with the granting of substantial subsidies, particularly for the construction of fixed or mobile networks capable of delivering (high speed) broadband. The g...

Google has been in the wars for the past year or so. Its status as a new kind of beneficent company has increasingly been questioned, and it has faced more and more criticism in Europe and elsewhere. Critics have been active on two principal fronts – privacy and market power. As the months pass, the latter issue has taken higher salience, with the...

The question of how to price access to the copper network during the period of transition to fibre has attracted much attention, both from regulators and in reports prepared by consultants (notably Plum Consulting and WIK Consult) acting for different groups of operators. Our paper considers three regulatory objectives - the two familiar ones of ef...

Telecommunications are subject to exceptional fiscal treatment in respect of both taxes and subsidies. Services are subject to special taxes in many jurisdictions; and special subsidies are paid to finance investments, especially in new fibre networks. The paper analyses the validity in general of both of these forms of treatment. In many jurisdict...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to set out the history and content of the European Commission's Recommendation on the regulation of next generation access networks, published in September 2010. The aim is to assess the Recommendation in terms of its likely impact on harmonisation and certainty of regulation within the European Union and on inv...

The key task in the next stage of spectrum management is to adapt regulation to the prospect of widespread sharing, on a much more sophisticated basis than sharing is used today. There is a role for the regulator to take steps to expand the area of choice within which public and private sector users can operate. This is best done in general by enha...

The article reviews the various forms of upstream competition and considers the impact that they are likely to have on household and business customers. Competition can be inserted into the upstream in many ways, and must be supported by accompanying measures to ensure that competitors have access to distribution and other assets which they require...

Experts examine how regulatory and institutional environments affect the functioning of markets and propose reforms. In recent years governments have paid increasing attention to weighing the socioeconomic benefits of regulations against their costs. Rules and regulations governing economic activity are typically formulated with a view to their ben...

There is now strong interest among governments in allocating public funds for the purpose of promoting investment in very high speed broadband. Motives include industrial policy, and the attainment of equity objectives and of economic recovery. The paper examines the various dimensions of choice over where and how to intervene. It also considers th...

'State of the art' interdisciplinary study of regulation in an international context Each chapter provides a broad overview of key current issues and perspectives from a leading expert Particular focus on the issues of the application of specific regulatory approaches in different contexts Regulation is often thought of as an activity that restrict...

The authors took part in an independent review of competition and innovation in the water industry in England and Wales, undertaken for United Kingdom and Welsh government ministers. Privatised twenty years ago, subject to a price control regime which has permitted high levels of investment, and unchanged as a set of vertically integrated regional...

The introduction of spectrum trading creates opportunities for operators, singly or jointly, to foreclose entry into downstream markets by accumulating unneeded spectrum holdings. After considering how these issues are treated under administrative methods of spectrum management, the paper examines the degree of substitutability of frequencies with...

Canada lags other countries in solving the problem of spectrum scarcity amid rising demand driven by cellphones and other wireless products. In this study, the authors call for reforms to liberalize the allocation of spectrum in Canada with a market-based approach, to increase competition, for the benefit of consumers and other end users.

In the authors' shared opinion, the economic evidence does not support the regulations proposed in the Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding Preserving the Open Internet and Broadband Industry Practices (the “NPRM”). To the contrary, the economic evidence provides no support for the existence of market failure sufficient to warrant e...

Next generation access (NGA) networks are an opportunity and a challenge for regulators. Unlike the costs of a copper access networks, those of an NGA are not yet sunk; hence fixed monopoly suppliers need an incentive to invest. This need is likely to influence the regulator's unbundling and access pricing regime, including application of the 'ladd...

This article examines how regulation and competition law have been deployed to control the firms operating in the telecommunications sector, and how, in particular, regulation has been designed, particularly in the European Union, in such a way that it can be withdrawn in favour of the more widespread application of competition law. Examples are el...

The financial crisis that led to a global recession in the first decade of the twenty-first century offers much potential for reconsidering the practice and study of regulation. Throughout this volume, the aspiration has been to present contributions that strengthen cross-disciplinary conversations across social science disciplines. Innovation ofte...

The replacement of copper telecommunications networks by fibre-based next-generation networks (NGN) capable of providing high-speed broadband services requires substantial investment and a regulatory regime designed to encourage it. The paper identifies which technologies are capable of supporting NGN and considers what changes to the regulatory re...

Maximising the opportunities for spectrum-using industries requires that spectrum be fully used rather than hoarded, and that no firm is able to use market power in spectrum licences to foreclose or limit competition in end-user markets. The development in recent years of the use of market methods, permitting change of use and secondary trading, to...

La transmission à très haut débit est une technologie qui va bouleverser la situation des fournisseurs d’accès et de leur clientèle, et aussi celle des régulateurs. Elle oblige les fournisseurs d’accès à substituer la fibre optique au moyen de transmission qu’ils utilisaient depuis des décennies, les lignes en cuivre. Elle ouvre des possibilités sa...

Purpose What rules, if any, should regulators put in place to provide incentives for timely and efficient investment in next generation fibre access networks (NGA) while, at the same time, preventing monopoly abuse, either by taking monopoly rents from end users or harming downstream competition? This paper aims to focus on these issues. Design/me...

The European institutions are currently debating the desirability of imposing restrictions on the way in which internet service providers (ISPs) in the EU can manage their networks and develop their offerings, under the broad heading of 'network neutrality'. In our opinion, so far, the need for new legislation on network neutrality in Europe is unp...

This chapter describes and assesses the new regime for regulating electronic communications services, which came into force in Europe in July 2003. The first two sections describe, respectively, the previous regime (the 1998 package) and the new regime. The third section discusses experience of the new system up to the end of 2007,1 whereas the fou...

L'introduzione delle reti di accesso di nuova generazione rappresenta un cambiamento epocale, che potrebbe cambiare radicalmente sia le possibilità di comunicazione di milioni di famiglie, sia le modalità operative delle attività commerciali. Sul piano regolamentare, l'introduzione delle reti di accesso di nuova generazione pone rilevanti sfide all...

Recent advances in telecommunications, particularly using fibre technologies, permit many services based on data-processing to be performed anywhere in the world. They thus become tradable and subject to the laws of comparative advantage. A good example is data-processing within large multi-national corporations, the integrated performance of which...

The paper discusses the dilemmas facing European regulators (the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities) over the promotion of investment in Next Generation Access Networks (NGANs). Whereas the US has adopted a deregulatory approach and parts of Asia takes an approach linked to industrial policy considerations, the EU has large...

Market-based methods of spectrum management can be applied both at the primary stage of issuing spectrum licences, via auctions, and by introducing a regime of secondary trading of spectrum licences, thereby permitting both change in ownership of the licence and a choice on the part of the licensee over what technology to employ (technological neut...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how spectrum policy can support the changing objectives of universal service in communications services. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a review of current universal service obligations, analysis of how they will change, and identification of spectrum policy responses. Findings The s...

The issue of separating telecommunications networks - either functionally within a common ownership structure or structurally, under separate ownership - has attracted much recent attention. The paper discusses different forms of separation and the motives for them, and examines the question of how investment can be co-ordinated across the boundary...