This paper studies the endogenous determination of the nature of telephone calls, namely whether they are local or long distance. Calls between users in the same local calling area are local, and we allow the extension of this area to be treated as a strategic variable. We show that the extension of the calling areas which maximises the carrier's profit is the same that a welfare maximising regulator would choose. Under a price cap regime in which prices are required to meet an average price constraint, the firm is shown to manipulate strategically the extension of the local calling areas. We end the paper by considering the case of a competitive market. In this case, again, the owner of the local loop manipulates the extension of the local calling areas to increase profits.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of York in its series Discussion Papers with number
00/03.
Length: Date of creation: Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:00/03
Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom Phone: (0)1904 433776 Fax: (0)1904 433759 Email: Web page: http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/econ/ More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Michael Shallcross).
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: