Digital Commons Network^™

Toward A Unified Theory Of Access To Local Telephone Systems, Daniel F. Spulber, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

One of the most distinctive developments in telecommunications policy over the past few decades has been the increasingly broad array of access requirements regulatory authorities have imposed on local telephone providers. In so doing, policymakers did not fully consider whether the justifications for regulating telecommunications remained valid. They also allowed each access regime to be governed by its own pricing methodology and set access prices in a way that treated each network component as if it existed in isolation. The result was a regulatory regime that was internally inconsistent, vulnerable to regulatory arbitrage, and unable to capture the interactions among …

The Enduring Lessons Of The Breakup Of At&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

On April 18-19, 2008, the University of Pennsylvania Law School hosted a landmark conference on “The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective.” This conference was the first major event for Penn’s newly established Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, a research institute committed to promoting basic research into foundational frameworks that will shape the way policymakers think about technology-related issues in the future. The breakup of AT&T represents an ideal starting point for reexamining the major themes of telecommunications policy that have emerged over the past quarter century. The conference featured a keynote address by …

The Dtv Coupon Program: A Boon To Retailers, Not Consumers, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Testimony For Fcc En Banc Hearing At Carnegie Mellon University On Broadband And The Digital Future, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Broadband Internet Access, Daniel F. Spulber, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

The emergence of broadband Internet technologies, such as cable modem and digital subscriber line (DSL) systems, has reopened debates over how the Internet should be regulated. Advocates of network neutrality and open access to cable modem systems have proposed extending the regulatory regime developed to govern conventional telephone and narrowband Internet service to broadband. A critical analysis of the rationales traditionally invoked to justify the regulation of telecommunications networks--such as natural monopoly, network economic effects, vertical exclusion, and the dangers of ruinous competition--reveals that those rationales depend on empirical and theoretical preconditions that do not apply to broadband. In addition, …

Understanding International Broadband Comparisons, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Telecommunications In Africa: Small Island Developing States, Ewan Sutherland

Ewan Sutherland

Analysis of telecommunications policy and practice in Africa tends to focus on a few large markets (e.g., Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa), even though the lessons from these may not easily be scaled down for other countries. At the other extreme, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) lie at the periphery, both geographically and in the sustainability and affordability of their services. They face disproportionate challenges in creating and maintaining properly functioning markets, not least as they are more susceptible to climatic and economic shocks. Like other African countries they too need to deliver services to businesses and citizens.

There …

The Rules Of The Road Or Roadblocks On The Information Highway? Regulation And Innovation In Telecommunications, James Prieger, Daniel Heil

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Regulatory policy in telecommunications must balance short-term efficiency (low prices) against the firms’ incentives to innovate, which have longer reaching impacts on economic welfare. Historically, policy tended to sacrifice dynamic efficiency for the sake of competitive prices and static efficiency. In the last few decades, economists and other researchers have begun to document the large welfare costs of ignoring dynamic efficiency. We analyze the impact regulation has on innovation in a simple theoretical framework. We then turn to the empirical evidence that regulation dampens firms’ incentive to innovate in the telecommunications industry in general and the market for broadband Internet …

Reverse Auctions And Universal Telecommunications Service: Lessons From Global Experience, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The United States now spends around $7 billion on universal service programs—subsidies intended to ensure that the entire country has access to telecommunications services. Most of this money supports telecommunications service in “high cost” (primarily rural) areas, and the High Cost fund is growing quickly. In response to this growth, policymakers are considering using reverse auctions, or bids for the minimum subsidy, as a way to reduce expenditures. While the U.S. has not yet distributed funds for universal service programs using reverse auctions, the method has been used widely. First, reverse auctions are akin to standard government procurement procedures, which …

Siting Telecommunications Towers: Suggestions For Protecting The Public Interest, David Angerer

MTAS Publications: Full Publications

A city should have a strategy in place before it considers a request from a telecommunications service to erect a tower.

The Economics Of Pacific Bell V. Linkline Communications, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Telecommunications In South-East Europe: Operators, Reforms And Outcomes, Ewan Sutherland

Ewan Sutherland

This paper sets out the policy frameworks adopted by governments in South East Europe to address the deficit of access networks and thus boost economic development. The responses by large European operators to the opportunities are then explained and analysed. The effects of the policies and the operator responses are then discussed. Finally, conclusions for policy makers and for researchers are drawn.

Testimony On Broadband To Senate Committee On Small Business And Entrepreneurship, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Monopoly Rights In The Privatization Of Telephone Firms, Bruno E. Viani

Bruno E. Viani

Data from utility privatization sales in 74 countries is analyzed to investigate why governments award monopoly rights, and how monopoly affects government revenue from these sales. Financially constrained governments are more likely to award monopoly rights. Interest groups and institutions are important. Increased importance of taxed business users reduces the probability of a government granting monopoly rights, while an increase in the importance of subsidized residential users has the opposite effect. Durable democracies and market-oriented governments are less likely to award monopoly rights. Monopolies increase government revenue by 66 percent.

Product Innovation, Signaling, And Endogenous Regulatory Delay, James Prieger

School of Public Policy Working Papers

This paper examines the determinants of the timing of a monopolistic firm’s product innovation and regulatory approval, and proposes a signaling model with endogenous regulatory delay. Regulatory delay exerts a multiplier effect on total time to market, because when the firm expects the regulator to take longer to grant approval, the firm delays its product introduction. The firm can time its innovation to communicate its private information about the marginal cost of delay to the regulator. Successful signaling in the separating equilibrium leads the regulator to reduce regulatory delay. The implications of the model are consistent with data on innovation …

A Regulatory Play In Two Acts, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Mandating Access To Telecom And The Internet: The Hidden Side Of Trinko, Daniel F. Spulber, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust has long played a major role in telecommunications policy, demonstrated most dramatically by the equal access mandate imposed during the breakup of AT&T. In this Article we explore the extent to which antitrust can continue to serve as a source of access mandates following the Supreme Court's 2004 Trinko decision. Although Trinko sharply criticized access remedies and antitrust courts' ability to enforce them, it is not yet clear whether future courts will interpret the opinion as barring all antitrust access claims. Even more importantly, the opinion contains language hinting at possible bases for differentiating among different types of access, …

Broadband And Unbundling Regulations In Oecd Countries, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

Broadband penetration and available speeds vary widely across OECD countries. Policymakers around the world, and especially in countries like the U.S. that lag in the rankings, are searching for policies to narrow those gaps. Relatively little empirical work tests possible reasons for these differences. In this paper I test the impacts of regulations and demographics on broadband development in a panel dataset across countries. In addition to adding to the meager empirical literature on broadband across countries, this paper is novel in two ways. First, it explicitly takes into account the many different types of unbundling regulations that countries have …

Telecommunications Regulation In U.S. States: Its Rise And Impacts In The Early Twentieth Century, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Universal Telecommunications Service In India, Roger G. Noll, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

The African Telecommunications Union: A Pan-African Approach To Telecommunications Reform, Patricia K. Mccormick

Communication Faculty Research Publications

This article examines the organisational structure and strategic plans of the African Telecommunica- tions Union (ATU). Although the ATU has been restructured to include private telecommunications entities as asso- ciate members, it remains essentially an inter-governmental agency. The article assesses the benefits of a regional approach to telecommunications reform and proposes that regional economic organisations replace the nation states as members of the ATU. Although the goals of the ATU, as articulated in its strategic plans are laudable, clearly de- fined benchmarks and specific strategies to achieve them are needed to make the organisation more effective.

Broadband Penetration: An Empirical Analysis Of State And Federal Policies, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Private Control, Competition, And The Performance Of Telephone Firms In Less Developed Countries, Bruno E. Viani

Bruno E. Viani

Firm-level data of 23 public telephone firms from less developed countries is used to compare the operating performance under private and state control in the period 1986-2001. Fixed-effects estimation indicates that privately controlled firms exhibit higher productive efficiency than their state counterparts after controlling for monopoly conditions, income level, and the scale of the firm’s fixed telephone network. This strongly supports the property rights theory of the firm even under the limited private property protection that less developed countries offer. On the other hand, public telephone firms that face competition on basic services and from wireless firms tend to exhibit …

Telecommunications Reform In Southern Africa: The Role Of The Southern African Development Community, Patricia K. Mccormick

Communication Faculty Research Publications

This article examines telecommunications reform and related infrastructure and service developments in Southern African states. In focusing on this region, the article analyses the role of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the different associations and commissions it has created to develop the telecommunications sector and facilitate reform, which is essential to promote network efficiencies and extend the infrastructure to rural areas. As a regional organisation, SADC is poised to promote restructuring of the telecommunications sector in its 14 member states, as it seeks to achieve complementary national and regional programs and promote sustainable development and economic growth through …

A Road Map For Accessible, Affordable And Adaptable Broadband Telecommunications In Portland, Abdullah Al-Thabt, Jamison Cavallaro, David De La Rocha, Brendan C. Finn, Jonathan Konkol

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Portland needs to plan for broadband development and take steps to ensure these plans are implemented. In order to implement Portland's land use and economic development goals, broadband must be accessible to all users. This means that any home or business must have access to the best available network technology to meet their needs. Currently, broadband service is not provided at uniform levels City-wide. It must be affordable, which requires real competition among providers. Portland's market presently offers too few choices outside the central business district to meet this criterion. In addition, broadband must be adaptable to future uses. Without …

Technical Bulletins: Telecommunications Update: Keeping Up With The Cable, Telephone, And Wireless Business, Jim Finane

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

This short briefing will answer some frequently asked questions, give decision makers new or changed information, keep you current on changes in this area, and highlight what you should watch for when working with these businesses in your city.

Using Fiber Networks To Stimulate Transit-Oriented Development: Prospects Barrier And Best Practices, Mti Report 01-16, Walter Siembab

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study empirically examines a practical aspect of a relationship that is only now being conceptualized––the relationship between rail transit, land development, and telecommunications. It pushes the envelope of knowledge in so far as the interaction between just two of the factors, public transportation and land use (urban form), has been a focus of policy research for only about 30 years, especially the last 10 years. This study is concerned with the feasibility of introducing three telecommunications-based incentives for transit-oriented development. The market for these hypothetical incentives is the developers of transit-oriented projects. California’s Bay Area/Santa Clara Valley and Los …

Trends. Necessity As The Mother Of Invention: International Crime In An Era Of Globalization, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses how the increasing reach and efficiency of telecommunications and mass transport in an era of globalization pose new opportunity for international crime.

Patterns Of Demographic And Economic Change In The Western United States, Pamela Case

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

17 pages.

Contains footnotes.

Telecommunications Divestment: An Erosion Of Democracy In The Caribbean, Patricia K. Mccormick

Communication Faculty Research Publications

This article examines the undemocratic process of telecommunications divestment in Jamaica and Trin- idad and Tobago. The divestment of the telecommunications sector was largely prompted by each state’s inability to service external debt. Despite espousing the importance of public participation in the ownership of state-owned en- terprises being divested, the governments each limited or excluded nationals from ownership of the telephony com- panies. Divestment of the telecommunications sector was principally undertaken through private negotiations with Cable and Wireless which has historically provided service to former British colonies. This continued colonization of the telecommunications sector is at odds with the democratic …