Activities 2006
Symposium The Future of telecoms Regulation
2-3 November 2006, organized by:
Paul de Bijl (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis)
Jos Huigen (OPTA)
ENCORE, in cooperation with OPTA and TILEC, is organizing a small-scale symposium to discuss the future of regulation in the emerging and converging markets for electronic communications. The symposium will bring together a group renowned experts from economic, legal, regulatory and technological disciplines. In the three sessions, they will discuss:
1. the broader developments in information and media markets;
2. the link between market structure, competition an the need for regulation in telecoms;
3. the regulatory situation in the Netherlands, a country with good prospects for competition between networks.
The symposium's aim:
Critical and constructive discussions of the fit of the regulatory framework for electronic communication sevices and market developments, with a moderate focus on the Netherlands as one of the markets with the most advanced stage of infrastructure competition in the EU.
Theme 1: The big picture
This theme vieuws telecoms regulation from the broad perspective
of developments in sectors related to the internet, information technology, and media, and also to the implications of these developments to the nature of social interactions in society.
A. what are the broader develpments that affect the nature of competition in the "traditional" telecoms market, in which network operators increasingly face competitive pressure from the Internet, application developers, media firms, and so on.
B. How should regulation react to these developments? (e.g. because of network neutrality issues, in teh light of cross-sector M&A)?
C. How do these developments affect the optimal task division between sectorspecific regulation and ex post competition law?
Presentations Theme 1 online:
Jos Huigen, OPTA. click here
Johan Pouwelse, Delft University. click here
Nico Baken, Delft University. click here
Martin Cave, Warwick University. click here
Alexandre de Streel, University of Namur. click here
Inge Bernaerts, European Commission. click here
Theme 2: the emergence of facilities-based competition
Consider the imminence of facilities-based competition between the incumbent's telecoms network (PSTN/DSL, migrating towards all-IP) and various regional cable operators with an aggregate nationwide coverage-all offering triple play bundles, as can be observed in the Netherlands. Such a situation, in which mergers and acquisitions may lead to the emergence of a single, nationwide cable oparator, can be seen as a duopoly of facilities-bases competition.
A. Is n = 2, that is, a duopoly of two network operators, enough for effective competition?
B. Can access regulation be put on hold, perhaps untill a new monolpoly emerges? (Note that in the meantime, access regulation is not necessarily abandoned, but may be used as a threat)
C. How does this development affect the optimal task division between sector-specific regulation and ex post competition law?
Presentations Theme 2 online:
Maarten Janssen, Tinbergen Institute. click here
Sean Ennis, OECD. click here
Pierre larouche, Tilburg University. click here
Martin Peitz, Intern. University of Germany. click here
Robert Stil, OPTA. click here
Theme 3. Focusing on the Netherlands
This theme translates the conceptual issues of the previous themes to the regulatory situation in the Netherlands.
A. Does the Netherlands need more than average "room to move" within-or perhaps even outside of-the EU regulatory framework?
B. That is, do country-specific characteristics (e.g. nationwide duopoly of triple-play network operators) call for a higher speed of deregulation than the average speed that the framework is aiming at?
Presentations Theme 3 online:
Joost van der Vleuten, Ministry of Econ. Affairs. click here
Paul de Bijl, Netherlands Bureau for Econ.Policy Analysis. click here
Nico van Eijk, IVIR and University of Amsterdam, and Annetje Ottow, IVIR and OPTA. Click here
Jens Arnbak, Delft University of Technology. Click here
Live and on-demand webcast
To facilitate in-depth discussions, the event is organized as a roundtable for invited participants only. Nevertheless, you can virtually attend and participate in the symposium at www.encore.nl, where presentations will be webcast and slide shows can be downloaded. Online, during the event, everyone can post questions that will be forwarded to the speakers during the discussions. A selection of the speakers' contributions is planned to appear in a special issue of an academic journal dedicated to policy in telecoms markets.
ENCORE activities, with exception of academic workshops and the annual conference, are held under Chatham House Rule.
