IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp500.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mobile Phone Termination Charges with Asymmetric Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Pio Baake
  • Kay Mitusch

Abstract

We model competition between two unregulated mobile phone companies with price-elastic demand and less than full market coverage. We also assume that there is a regulated full-coverage fixed network. In order to induce stronger competition, mobile companies could have an incentive to raise their reciprocal mobile-to-mobile access charges above the marginal costs of termination. Stronger competition leads to an increase of the mobiles' market shares, with the advantage that (genuine) network effects are strengthened. Therefore, 'collusion' may well be in line with social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Pio Baake & Kay Mitusch, 2005. "Mobile Phone Termination Charges with Asymmetric Regulation," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 500, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.43371.de/dp500.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tommaso M. Valletti & Carlo Cambini, 2005. "Investments and Network Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(2), pages 446-468, Summer.
    2. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Patrick Rey & Jean Tirole, 1998. "Network Competition: II. Price Discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(1), pages 38-56, Spring.
    3. Gans, Joshua S. & King, Stephen P., 2001. "Using 'bill and keep' interconnect arrangements to soften network competition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 413-420, June.
    4. Canoy, Marcel & Peitz, Martin, 1997. "The Differentiation Triangle," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 305-328, September.
    5. Marcel Canoy & Martin Peitz, 1997. "The Differentiation Triangle," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 305-328, September.
    6. Tommaso Valletti & George Houpis, 2005. "Mobile Termination: What is the “Right” Charge?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 235-258, November.
    7. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    8. Shmuel S. Oren & Stephen A. Smith, 1981. "Critical Mass and Tariff Structure in Electronic Communications Markets," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 467-487, Autumn.
    9. Gans, Joshua S. & King, Stephen P., 2000. "Mobile network competition, customer ignorance and fixed-to-mobile call prices," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 301-327, December.
    10. Neven, D. & Thisse, J-F., 1989. "On Quality And Variety Competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1989020, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    11. Cambini, Carlo & Valletti, Tommaso M., 2003. "Network competition with price discrimination: 'bill-and-keep' is not so bad after all," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 205-213, November.
    12. Poletti, Stephen & Wright, Julian, 2004. "Network interconnection with participation constraints," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 347-373, September.
    13. Gabrielsen, Tommy Staahl & Vagstad, Steinar, 2008. "Why is on-net traffic cheaper than off-net traffic Access markup as a collusive device," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 99-115, January.
    14. Anirudh Dhebar & Shmuel S. Oren, 1985. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing For Expanding Networks," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 336-351.
    15. Economides, Nicholas, 1996. "Network externalities, complementarities, and invitations to enter," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 211-233, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Edmond Baranes & Stefan Behringer & Jean-Christophe Poudou, 2017. "Mobile Access Charges and Collusion under Asymmetry," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 127, pages 33-60.
    2. Hoernig, Steffen & Bourreau, Marc & Cambini, Carlo, 2015. "Fixed-mobile substitution and termination rates," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 65-76.
    3. Marc Bourreau & Carlo Cambini & Steffen Hoernig, 2015. "Price distortion under fixed-mobile substitution," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 441-454, December.
    4. Jerry A. Hausman, 2012. "Two-sided Markets with Substitution: Mobile Termination Revisited," Chapters, in: Gerald R. Faulhaber & Gary Madden & Jeffrey Petchey (ed.), Regulation and the Performance of Communication and Information Networks, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harbord, David & Pagnozzi, Marco, 2008. "On-Net/Off-Net Price Discrimination and 'Bill-and-Keep' vs. 'Cost-Based' Regulation of Mobile Termination Rates," MPRA Paper 14540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mark Armstrong & Julian Wright, 2009. "Mobile Call Termination," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(538), pages 270-307, June.
    3. Claudio Agostini & Raul Lazcano & Eduardo Saavedra & Manuel Willington, 2016. "Price Differentiation between On-Net and Off-Net Calls: An Application to the Chilean Telephony Market," Working Papers wp_051, Adolfo Ibáñez University, School of Government.
    4. Agostini, Claudio A. & Willington, Manuel & Lazcano, Raúl & Saavedra, Eduardo, 2017. "Predation and network based price discrimination in Chile," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 781-791.
    5. Harbord, David & Hoernig, Steffen, 2010. "Welfare Analysis of Regulating Mobile Termination Rates in the UK (with an Application to the Orange/T-Mobile Merger)," MPRA Paper 21515, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Peitz, Martin & Valletti, Tommaso M. & Wright, Julian, 2004. "Competition in telecommunications: an introduction," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 315-321, September.
    7. repec:lmu:msmdpa:12688 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sjaak Hurkens & Doh-Shin Jeon, 2008. "A Retail Benchmarking Approach to Efficient Two-Way Access Pricing: Termination-Based Price Discrimination with Elastic Subscription Demand," Working Papers 08-41, NET Institute, revised Nov 2008.
    9. Amir, Rabah & Lazzati, Natalia, 2011. "Network effects, market structure and industry performance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2389-2419.
    10. Joan Calzada & Tommaso M. Valletti, 2008. "Network Competition and Entry Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(531), pages 1223-1244, August.
    11. Marc Bourreau & Carlo Cambini & Steffen Hoernig, 2015. "Price distortion under fixed-mobile substitution," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 441-454, December.
    12. Hoernig, Steffen, 2014. "Competition between multiple asymmetric networks: Theory and applications," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 57-69.
    13. Steffen Hoernig & Roman Inderst & Tommaso Valletti, 2014. "Calling circles: network competition with nonuniform calling patterns," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(1), pages 155-175, March.
    14. Thomas P. Tangerås, 2014. "Network competition with income effects," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(3), pages 645-673, September.
    15. Yu-Shan Lo, "undated". "Market Shares, Consumer Ignorance and the Reciprocal Termination Charges," Discussion Papers 09/19, Department of Economics, University of York.
    16. Vogelsang Ingo, 2013. "The Endgame of Telecommunications Policy? A Survey," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 64(3), pages 193-270, December.
    17. repec:lmu:msmdpa:13764 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Joan Calzada & Francesc Trillas, 2005. "The interconnection prices in telecomunications: from theory to practice," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 173(2), pages 85-125, June.
    19. Muck, Johannes, 2016. "Tariff-mediated network effects with incompletely informed consumers," DICE Discussion Papers 210, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    20. Dewenter, Ralf & Kruse, Jörn, 2011. "Calling party pays or receiving party pays? The diffusion of mobile telephony with endogenous regulation," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 107-117, March.
    21. Edmond Baranes & Laurent Flochel, 2008. "Competition in telecommunication networks with call externalities," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 53-74, August.
    22. Yasuhiko Nakamura, 2021. "Price versus quantity in a duopoly with network externalities under active and passive expectations," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 120-133, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Telecommunication; Mobile phones; Mobile-to-mobile access charges; Network effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.