Universal High-Speed Broadband Provision: An Alternative Policy Approach

Elmar Wolfstetter

No 9014, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Millions of citizens and firms lack access to high speed internet, even though governments pledged to spend huge sums of money to subsidize internet networks. In this paper we review some systematic flaws of present subsidy policies and outline a promising alternative. We propose that governments should treat the broadband infrastructure as a public responsibility and set up intelligently designed public-private partnerships that fund and temporarily operate the broadband in exchange for collecting service fees and, if necessary, subsidies. Simple “least-present value of revenue” auctions should be used to award all concessions, not only those that require subsidies, and concessions should flexibly revert to public ownership depending on realized revenues. This procurement method is easy to use, immune to strategic manipulations and renegotiations, and has already proven successful in procuring toll-roads and bridges.

Keywords: public-private partnerships; auctions; universal service auctions; high-speed broadband provision; public finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 D47 D86 H20 H54 L96 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict and nep-reg
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9014

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