Evaluating a decade of mobile termination rate regulation

Christos Genakos and Tommaso Valletti

No 303, CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: We re-consider the impact that regulation of call termination on mobile phones has had on mobile customers’ bills. Using a large panel covering 27 countries, we find that the “waterbed” phenomenon, initially observed until early 2006, has disappeared over the 10-year period, 2002-2011. We argue that this is due to the changing nature of the industry, whereby mobile-to-mobile traffic now plays a much bigger role compared to fixed-to-mobile calls in earlier periods. This implies that regulation does not have unintended consequences anymore. Over the same decade, there is no evidence that regulation caused a reduction in mobile operators’ profits and investments.

Keywords: regulation; telephony; termination rates; waterbed effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L4 L9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2014-01-10, Revised 2014-01-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Evaluating a Decade of Mobile Termination Rate Regulation (2015)
Working Paper: Evaluating a Decade of Mobile Termination Rate Regulation (2014)
Working Paper: Evaluating a decade of mobile termination rate regulation (2014)
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