 The impact of spectrum assignment policies on consumer welfareKalvin Bahia and Pau Castells Telecommunications Policy, 2022, vol. 46, issue 1 Abstract: The radio spectrum that governments license to mobile operators is central to the development of mobile broadband services. However, there is significant variation around how much and when spectrum is assigned as well as its costs. We assess whether policies to assign spectrum had an impact on consumer welfare in 64 countries during the 2010–2017 period. We find evidence that policies that reduce the amount of spectrum available to operators, delay the assignment of spectrum and increase the cost of spectrum all impacted two important consumer outcomes - network coverage and quality. The findings have implications for governments and regulators, particularly those betting on 4G and 5G as enablers of economic growth and sustainable development. Keywords: Spectrum; Mobile communications; Auctions (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:telpol:v:46:y:2022:i:1:s0308596121001324 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2021.102228 Access Statistics for this article Telecommunications Policy is currently edited by Erik Bohlin More articles in Telecommunications Policy from Elsevier |
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