TY  - CONF
A1  - Fredebeul-Krein, Markus
T1  - Time for revision: The regulation of Germany's next generation networks in the light of new economic and technological challenges on telecom markets : Presentation for the 18th Biennial conference of the International Telecommunications Society, June 24–27, 2008 Montreal, Canada
N2  - On 1st January 1998, the German telecom market was fully liberalised. Since then genuine competition between market participants has developed, based on a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework that provides for safeguards against unfair competition and market power by Deutsche Telekom. Today, about 10 years after the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector a revision of this regulatory approach has become necessary because at least on three dimensions the situation is quite different from the one 10 years ago: First, with numerous established alternative operators in the market monopolies have been successfully challenged and competition introduced. Second, not only is Cable TV becoming in large parts of Germany a viable alternative for the provision of broadband services but also mobile services are becoming increasingly a substitute for fixed services. Last but not least there are important technological changes under way, requiring huge investments in infrastructure upgrades for next generation networks. In the light of these new developments the question is to which extent the current regulatory approach of severe ex-ante regulatory intervention is still appropriate. Is any part of the network of the former incumbent still a bottleneck? A more light handed regulatory approach might be the right response to this new situation. The paper is organised as follows: The first section will briefly examine the economic rationale for regulating network access. Based on the assumption that regulation is always necessary when bottlenecks exist regulatory principles for an efficient network access regime will be derived. The second section compares the situation of the German market in early 1998 with the one of today. Thereby three dimensions will be considered: the degree of competition, the potential for substitution and technological developments. The third section will define some requirements for the future regulation of telecom markets. Proposals will be elaborated how to ensure competitive telecom markets in the light of new economic and technological challenges.
KW  - Telekommunikationsmarkt
KW  - Telekommunikationsmarkt
Y1  - 2008
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.fh-aachen.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/227
ER  -