Programme

Regulation, technology and strategy
 the telecommunications industry

1. Sectoral regulation and liberalisation
• The introduction of competition, horizontal regulation, sectoral regulation and foreign direct investment
• Reading:
• A new route for telecom deregulation by Scott Beardsley, Luis Enriquez, and Jon C. Garcia
• The costs and benefits of regulation: implications for developing countries by J Luis Guasch and Robert Hahn
• Technology policy in the telecommunication sector; market responses and economic impacts by Heli Koski
• Competition in international voice communications (World Bank)
2. The growth of cellular mobile telephony
• Expansion of telephony, standards, two-sided market, business model, cross-subsidies, market abuses
• Reading:
• Towards a national telecommunications strategy in Morocco by Mohammed Ibahrine
• Case study: Morocco: Developing competition in telecommunications
• Questions:
1. Why did the incumbent operator resist the introduction of competition?
2. Why has the incumbent operator benefitted from having a rival?
3. Would the introduction of a further operator be good for the existing players?
3. Universal service
• The social obligation of access, scope of service, funding mechanisms, limits of market provision, market failures and technological change
• Reading:
• World Bank Universal access and output-based aid in telecommunications and ICT
• infoDev Practical handbook for telecommunications regulators: Module 6 Universal Service
• Case study:  Financing universal telephone service (CBO)
• Questions:
1. How has the concept of universal service and its funding been treated at a political level in the USA?
2. How have operators providing universal service behaved?
3. If the present system is no longer affordable, how should the options for the future be evaluated?
4. What lessons are there for other countries?
4. International trade regulation
• Commitments to market access, disputes between nation states
• Reading:
• WTO Reference paper
• Boutheina Guermazi Exploring the Reference Paper on regulatory principles
• Case study: Telecommunications and the World Trade Organization: the case of Mexico (World Bank)
• Questions:
• Why did the USA bring this case?
• Who "won" the case and what good did it do them?
• Is this form of dispute resolution likely to encourage operators to support commitments to the reference paper?
5. Assigning and licencing spectrum
• Global coordination of spectrum assignment, interference, industry policy, migration to new technology, perceptions of technological change and new business models
• Reading:
• The radio spectrum: opportunities and challenges for the developing world (World Bank)
• Comparative assessment of the licensing regimes for 3G mobile communications in the European Union and their impact on the mobile communications sector (McKinsey for the European Commission)
• Paul Klemperer on auctions
• Case study: Auction of Pakistani cellular mobile licences
• Questions:
1. Why would a European operator want a licence in Pakistan?
2. What were the political risks?
3. What was the business model to recover the investment?
4. How would you arrive at a price to bid in the auction?
6. Portability of names numbers and addresses
• Switching costs, competition, market entry and exit
• Reading:
• Brian Viard Do Switching Costs Make Markets More or Less Competitive? The Case of 800-Number Portability Stanford University
7. Governmental aid and support
• Industry policy, interventions by the state/province/municipality, pro-competitive policies, promotion of technologies, promotion of geographical areas
• Reading:
• State aid rules (European Commission)
• Clark, David D., Gillett, Sharon E., Lehr, William, Sirbu, Marvin and Fountain, Jane, "Local Government Stimulation of Broadband: Effectiveness, E-Government, and Economic Development" (January 2003). KSG Working Papers Series RWP03-002. http://ssrn.com/abstract=372260
8. Manufacturing
• Low-cost production, standard and non-standard technologies
• Reading:
• Case study: Samsung
• Questions:
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9. Cybersecurity
• Self-regulation, technical solutions, cross-border enforcement
• Reading:
• Spam issues in developing countries (OECD)
• Stemming the international tide of spam ITU-Development
• Case study: Effectiveness and enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act: a Federal Trade Commission report to Congress (Federal Trade Commission)
• Questions:
1. How effective has the work of the FTC been on the suppression of spam?
2. What further measures might the FTC reasonably take?
3. Are the solutions applicable to newer forms of spam, such as SPIM, SPIT and SPLOG?
4. What are the limits of "legitimate" sending on commercial communications?
10. Dispute resolution
• dispute between operators, asymmetric bargaining powers, regulators, dispute resolution, alternative dispute resolution
• Reading:
• Case study: New Zealand - Clear and Telecom NZ
• Questions:
1. Why did the government wish to leave disputes to operators and the courts?
2. What was the result for potential market entrants of this dispute?
3. Would alternative dispute resolution have been a feasible option?
11. Competition law
• pro-competitive policy, competition law, merger control, anti-trust, market dominance
  
• Reading:
12. Benchmarking regulation
• national ICT strategies, market entry, regulation of incumbent operators and benchmarking
  
• Reading:
• Case study: Regulatory scorecard  (ECTA)
• Questions:
1. Is investment a reasonable measure of a good regulatory regime?
2. How would regulators and governments to react to this sort of exercise?
13. Data protection and privacy
• Real and perceived threats, preventive principle, light touch regulation, trans-border data flows and international cooperation
• Reading:
• OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data
• Kim Taipale Technology, Security and Privacy: The Fear of Frankenstein, the Mythology of Privacy and the Lessons of King Ludd International Journal of Communications Law and Policy
• Tim Wu The International Privacy Regime
14. Silicon valley and wealth creation
• The rise and rise of Silicon Valley, economic clusters, venture capital, attempts to replicate
• Reading:
• Stephen Adams (2005) "Stanford and Silicon Valley: lessons on becoming a high-tech region" California Management Review 48 (1) 29-51, Fall 2005
• J. Zhang (2003) High-tech start-ups and industry dynamics in Silicon Valley Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco
• Joint Venture (2006) Index of Silicon Valley
15. Student presentations
16. Student presentations