Telecommunications Policy

Network neutrality mandates have been made out either as necessary to ensure a level playing field in online markets or, alternatively, as overly restrictive regulation preventing innovation and investment. However, there is little empirical research on the consequences of data throttling, which becomes legal without network neutrality regulations. We combine throughput levels measured for mobile internet service providers in the United States with usage data to explore how sensitive users are to such practices.

The European Commission has recognized early on the disruptive potential of 5G and later 6G.

Mobile communications markets are usually characterized by a limited number of operators. Despite being markets exhibiting high concentration, many mobile network operator mergers have been recently proposed and approved subject to remedies (or commitments by the merging parties). The research investigates the merger induced effects on consumer surplus, in which a model has three firms selling horizontally and vertically differentiated products.

Worldwide, there is an ongoing policy and regulatory push to make very high-speed broadband available as widely as possible. Underlying the policy interventions to support higher speeds is an implicit assumption that higher speeds will enable different (and socially valuable) uses. Extensive data on usage published by the UK telecommunications regulator finds that the linkage between broadband speeds and traffic per line—allowing for demographic factors—shows that higher speed has a weak relationship to traffic.

Strategic rethinking of the policies that promote 5G development and deployment in Europe is needed, as they are crucial in determining the future impact of 5G and later 6G on the digital economy. Considering the current state of 5G deployment and insights that have emerged from the debate on 5G technological leadership, there is a need for a more effective and proactive policy from the European Union (EU) in this field.