Series/Report no.:
20th Biennial Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS): "The Net and the Internet - Emerging Markets and Policies" , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 30th-03rd December, 2014
Abstract:
This paper provides an empirical analysis how tariff diversity aspects fixed-line broad-band uptake, utilizing a new data set with 1497 fixed-line and 2158 mobile broad-band tariffs from 91 countries across the globe. An instrumental variable approach is applied to estimate demand, controlling for various industry and socio-economic factors. The empirical results indicate that, firstly, lower prices, more tariff diver-sity and higher income increase broadband penetration. Secondly, inter-platform competition and mobile broadband prices are not found to have a significant effect on fixed-line broadband penetration. This suggests that low prices and the diver-sity of broadband offerings are more important drivers of fixed broadband adoption than competition between various technologies (cable networks, fixed-line telephone networks, mobile networks).