Ingo Vogelsang - Böcker

These volumes are concerned with the economic impact of governments as regulators, designers of economic policy and as economic agents in their own right.

The years since the early 1980s have seen exceptionally fast rates of change in every aspect of the telecommunications industry. These include major technology changes and the convergence of the broadcasting, information technology and telecommunications industries. The earlier view of telecommunications as a natural monopoly has now given way to one in which almost all parts are susceptible to some form of competition. Simultaneously, market structure has changed through the replacement of the former monopolistic, vertically integrated telephone companies by a variety of competing firms. These developments have been accompanied by major legislative and regulatory developments, including the passing in the United States of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the introduction of a large number of new laws and regulations in Europe and elsewhere. The same changes have seen a massive expansion of independent regulatory agencies. This volume provides detailed reviews and commentaries on these contemporary changes in the landscape of a major industry from an academic perspective, yet in an analytical manner designed for a wide audience of academics and professionals with an interest in the telecommunications industry. The contents are set out in three main sections. The chapters in section one deal with the economic characteristics of the sector, which define the industry's structure. Sections two and three deal respectively with regulation and competition. Regulatory and competition issues continuously interact with each other, as each set of issues influences the other. The industry continues to evolve through the interaction of the various processes. Volume 1 of the handbook aims to provide an integrated set of concepts, evidence and facts that will enable the reader to understand this process.

The objective of the second volume of the "Handbook of Telecommunications Economics" is to highlight the economic aspects of the evolution of communications technologies beyond the basic fixed-line telephony infrastructure that was covered in Volume 1. In that book, structural, regulatory and competition policy issues with respect to a well-known technology were covered. Yet, technological options have increased in a quantum manner. Fuelled by the creativity of entrepreneurs and policy-makers world wide, it is safe to infer that a process of creative destruction is well underway. Volume 2 covers the major technological developments and tracks the changes in these developments, linking them to the ways that both communications can take place and that institutions and policies can evolve. Written by world leading scholars in a manner that will be appreciated by a wide audience of academics and professionals, the fifteen detailed reviews that make up this book provide an academic perspective on these contemporary changes.

The past decade has witnessed a surge of pricing innovations in the U.S. telecommunications industry. This book systematically reviews recent innovations in the economic theory of pricing and extends results to the conditions which characterise telecommunications markets. The implementation of normative pricing theory is examined in selected US telephone tariffs, providing a rich and diverse data base and laboratory for examining the practical consequences of pricing innovations. The authors develop and illuminate the relationships between the normative economic theory of pricing - with its objectives of social welfare, economic efficiency, and fairness - and telecommunications pricing as it is practised by business and regulators. The general theoretical pricing principles and lessons of US pricing experience discussed are directly applicable to telecommunications services in other countries, and to numerous other industries including electricity, gas, rail and air transport, and postal services, as well as economists studying the economic theory of pricing.

The past decade has witnessed a surge of pricing innovations in the U.S. telecommunications industry. This book systematically reviews recent innovations in the economic theory of pricing and extends results to the conditions which characterise telecommunications markets. The implementation of normative pricing theory is examined in selected US telephone tariffs, providing a rich and diverse data base and laboratory for examining the practical consequences of pricing innovations. The authors develop and illuminate the relationships between the normative economic theory of pricing - with its objectives of social welfare, economic efficiency, and fairness - and telecommunications pricing as it is practised by business and regulators. The general theoretical pricing principles and lessons of US pricing experience discussed are directly applicable to telecommunications services in other countries, and to numerous other industries including electricity, gas, rail and air transport, and postal services, as well as economists studying the economic theory of pricing.

The telecommunications industry has experienced dynamic changes over the past several years, and those exciting events and developments are reflected in the chapters of this volume. The Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) holds an unrivaled place at the center of national public policy discourse on issues in communications and information. TPRC is one of the few places where multidisciplinary discussions take place as the norm. The papers collected here represent the current state of research in telecommunication policy, and are organized around four topics: competition, regulation, universal service, and convergence.The contentious competition issues include bundling as a strategy in software competition, combination bidding in spectrum auctions, and anticompetitive behavior in the Internet. Regulation takes up telephone number portability, decentralized regulatory decision making versus central regulatory authority, data protection, restrictions to the flow of information over the Internet, and failed Global Information Infrastructure initiatives. Universal service addresses the persistent gap in telecommunications from a socioeconomic perspective, the availability of competitive Internet access service and cost modeling. The convergence section concentrates on the costs of Internet telephony versus circuit switched telephony, the intertwined evolution of new services, new technologies, and new consumer equipment, and the politically charged question of asymmetric regulation of Internet telephony and conventional telephone service.

Have you ever wondered how your telephone company or Internet service provider can give you access to almost all people in the world, or how electricity suppliers can compete with each other if there is only one electric supply line passing through your street? This Element deals with the economics and public regulation of such network industries. It puts particular emphasis on the specific economic concepts used for analyzing them and on the regulatory reform movement and the compatibility of regulation and competition. Worldwide most of these industries have changed dramatically in recent years, telecommunications in particular. Network industries mostly exhibit economies of scale in production and similar economies in consumption. Both of these properties cause market power problems that often require industry-specific regulation. However, due to technological and market changes network policies have moved on from end-user regulation to wholesale regulation and in some cases to deregulation.

The telecommunications industry has experienced dynamic changes over the past several years, and those exciting events and developments are reflected in the chapters of this volume. The Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) holds an unrivaled place at the center of national public policy discourse on issues in communications and information. TPRC is one of the few places where multidisciplinary discussions take place as the norm. The papers collected here represent the current state of research in telecommunication policy, and are organized around four topics: competition, regulation, universal service, and convergence.The contentious competition issues include bundling as a strategy in software competition, combination bidding in spectrum auctions, and anticompetitive behavior in the Internet. Regulation takes up telephone number portability, decentralized regulatory decision making versus central regulatory authority, data protection, restrictions to the flow of information over the Internet, and failed Global Information Infrastructure initiatives. Universal service addresses the persistent gap in telecommunications from a socioeconomic perspective, the availability of competitive Internet access service and cost modeling. The convergence section concentrates on the costs of Internet telephony versus circuit switched telephony, the intertwined evolution of new services, new technologies, and new consumer equipment, and the politically charged question of asymmetric regulation of Internet telephony and conventional telephone service.

This book provides a systematic overview of transmission network investment in liberalized power markets. Recent government policies to increase the share of intermittent renewable power generation and other technological innovations present new theoretical as well as practical challenges for transmission investments. Written by experts with a background in both economics and engineering, the book examines the economic and technical fundamentals of regulated and merchant transmission investment, and includes case studies of transmission investment in a number of countries. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 introduces the basic economics and engineering of transmission network investment, while Part 2 discusses merchant investment in the transmission network. Part 3 then examines transmission investment coordination and smart grids, and lastly, Part 4 describes practical experiences of transmission network investment in power market in various countries.

This book provides a systematic overview of transmission network investment in liberalized power markets. Recent government policies to increase the share of intermittent renewable power generation and other technological innovations present new theoretical as well as practical challenges for transmission investments. Written by experts with a background in both economics and engineering, the book examines the economic and technical fundamentals of regulated and merchant transmission investment, and includes case studies of transmission investment in a number of countries. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 introduces the basic economics and engineering of transmission network investment, while Part 2 discusses merchant investment in the transmission network. Part 3 then examines transmission investment coordination and smart grids, and lastly, Part 4 describes practical experiences of transmission network investment in power market in various countries.