Download Free Competition Aspects Of Access Pricing Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Competition Aspects Of Access Pricing and write the review.

"The question which this report addresses is how the Commission should seek to ensure the success of initiatives taken with a view to liberalising the network industries. In other words, the key question is not 'how should a regulatory authority establish network access prices within the framework of its own particular objectives and institutional arrangements?' but 'within the framework of European competition law, how should the Commission take a view as to whether a particular set of network access prices is anti-competitive?'"--Introduction.
David Gabel and David F. Weiman The chapters in this volwne address the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises the important policy questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. To foster rivalry in any industry, suppliers must have access to customers. But unlike in other sectors, the very organization of network industries creates major impediments to potential entrants trying to carve out a niche in the market. In traditional sectors such as gas, electric, rail, and telephone services, these barriers take the form of the large private and social costs necessary to duplicate the physical infrastructure of pipelines, wires, or tracks. Few firms can afford to finance such an undertaking, because the level of sunk costs and the very large scale economies make it extremely risky. In other newer sectors, entrants face less tangible but no less pressing constraints. In the microcomputer industry, for example, high switching costs can prevent users from experimenting with alternative, but perhaps more efficient hardware platforms or operating systems. Although gateway technologies can reduce these barriers, the installed base of an incumbent can create powerful bandwagon effects that reinforce its advantage (such as the greater availability of compatible peripherals and software applications). In the era of electronic banking, entrants into the automated teller machine· (A TM) and credit card markets face a similar problem of establishing a ubiquitous presence.
This report addresses the regulation of access to telecommunication networks. Development of competition and the success of liberalisation often depend on the access terms and conditions chosen, and public policy interest in getting these terms and conditions right is important.
A new class of access pricing problems is analyzed in which upstream firms compete for customers and access to these customers is required by downstream markets. Using fixed-to-cellular calls as an example, a model is presented which shows that the determination of cellular termination charges is quite different to standard access pricing problems. Competition between cellular firms leads to access prices being set either at, or above, the monopoly level. Applications are given for other market settings, including the termination of long-distance calls on competing local exchange networks and the setting of interchange fees in payment systems.
Access prices are important for competition in formerly monopolistic industries, and also for industries where competition has long been established such as payment and credit card networks or mobile telecommunications. Organized into five parts, this book provides theoretical and empirical analyses in access pricing and related topics.
The development of competition and the success of liberalisation measures within public utility industries often depends on access terms and conditions. Prepared by the OECD's Competition Committee, this report focuses on the regulation of access to essential facilities within the telecommunications industry, drawing on theory and practice of access pricing to help regulators and policy-makers learn from OECD experiences to achieve efficient and competitive outcomes.