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Modern times

Policymaking in the telecommunications industry for the digital age

Telecommunications operators are strongly affected by regulation in their ability to create value. Regulation influences the markets where they compete (e.g., signaling players with market dominance), the geographical boundaries of these markets (e.g., in Europe driving the advent of a unified market) and the relationships with other agents in the digital ecosystem (e.g., net neutrality).

Regulation and public policy in the telecommunications industry have their foundations in the micro-economic theory of equilibrium under static conditions. While it is arguable that this model was appropriate back in the 1990s when the industry was liberalized, the context in which telecommunications markets currently evolve is totally different. Today, telecommunications is one among many building blocks of the digital economy on the Internet, an ecosystem of linked agents in a permanent and accelerated process of change. The assumptions over which the regulation and public policy for the industry were built can no longer hold, and relying on them is at the serious risk of unintended consequences.

It is becoming urgent to define a new model for the public policies in the telecommunications industry, not only aimed at protecting consumers but also at fostering innovation, and able to unleash the wealth creation potential of the digital economy as well as to correct the less beneficial outcomes when they show up.

Today, telecommunications is one among many building blocks of the digital economy on the Internet, an ecosystem of linked agents in a permanent and accelerated process of change.

Modern times


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