This section features background information about the World Dialogue on Regulation and its partners, news about their activities, and information on conditions of use of the site.
| WDR e-Brief No. 01 |
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| Thursday, 14 February 2002 | |
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In this e-Brief *Welcome *Interaction Highlights *Question of the Week : Competition and Regulation: Substitutes or Complements? *New WDR Research Partner: Delft Interfaculty Reseach Programme *Registering for the Online Dialogue *Other news: LIRNE.NET course: Effective Telecom Regulation for Small Countries and WDR at Euro CPR *Questions and support The WDR  No. 01, 14 February 2002 Welcome to the first issue of the WDR e-Brief, a bi-weekly bulletin from the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR). The WDR e-Brief is designed to help you keep informed of new documents and ongoing discussions on our website at http://www.regulateonline.org/ and of other WDR activities. For more information on any of the items discussed here, go to the web addresses provided. Interaction Highlights Hundreds of you have already downloaded the first three WDR Discussion Papers since they were posted two weeks ago. The three papers direct attention to important aspects of WDR's theme for 2002, ICT Convergence or Multisector Utility Regulation?. They are also the starting point for the online dialogue. If you haven't yet read the papers, they are still available at http://www.regulateonline.org/dp/ . We have received a number of comments in the forums and by e-mail about the WDR website and the three discussion papers. The papers have not been up long, so it is not surprising that most comments have been about the website -- its design, organization and interface, rather than the content posted on the website. The questions we did receive were provocative and have kept our researchers busy. For example, commenting on the ICT convergence paper, Steve Armstrong asked why a big deal was being made about convergence regulation when the courts were more than adequate to deal with issues of intellectual property, electronic contracts etc. In another thread, S. Logan posed the question of the week by asking “Why not leave it to the market?” and concluded by stating: “Lets get rid of regulators!”. Later in the e-Brief WDR Managing Director William Melody provides his comments in response to Mr. Logan’s question. The regulateonline.org website is the centrepiece of an international dialogue on major issues of regulatory reform, we welcome your active participation. Join the debate at http://www.regulateonline.org/dialogue/ A number of you have asked us permission to provide a link to the WDR website from your site, as Prof. John Ure, Director of the Telecommunications Research Project located in the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong, has done: http://www.trp.hku.hk/index.html You are encouraged to provide a link to the WDR from your website and use WDR research documents in your classes with appropriate acknowledgement. (See WDR’s copyright policy at http://www.regulateonline.org/ipr.htm). Question of the Week In each WDR e-Brief we will select one or more of the questions or comments posted to the Online Dialogue at http://www.regulateonline.org/dialogue/ and ask our research teams to comment. The featured question in this week's e-Brief was posted in the Forum WDR Framework and Objectives by S. Logan who asks: What about the role of competition in WDR? Isn't telecom regulation a transitional exercise? Isn't it supposed to be replaced soon by "regulation" by competition authorities like any other industry? This is what is happening in the US, Europe and other countries now. Won't all this regulation you're talking about just slow down market development? Lets get rid of the regulators! WDR Managing Director William Melody provides his comments in response: Competition and Regulation: Substitutes or Complements? The telecom reform movement began with a recognition that telecom monopolies, in all but a handful of countries, were not fulfilling their objectives - either in terms of economic efficiency or providing universal access/service. Other organisations, ranging from small entrepreneurs and local co-operatives to transnational corporations, with new ideas for improving or extending service were being denied the opportunity to participate in the industry. The reform movement has been essentially a program of removing barriers to participation in the supply of telecom services - some competitive and many complementary, i.e., extending networks to new geographical areas, previously unserved people and businesses, and providing entirely new services. In the early stages of reform, the wealth of obvious opportunities for competition to improve efficiency, services and universal access coverage led many experts and policymakers to predict that the telecom industry could become effectively competitive and thereafter be monitored by competition authorities. Industry specific telecom regulation was needed only to facilitate this transition. This view reflected more the ideals of economists and the aspirations of many policymakers than a hard-headed analysis of the industry technologies, services and market structures. Unfortunately, experience has demonstrated these expectations to be unrealistic, if not naive. The limits of effective competition have become stalled long before the telecom industry can be declared competitive. The countries that claim the greatest amount of competition – US and UK – are strengthening their regulatory capabilities. New Zealand, which tried a policy of open entry and monitoring by the competition authority for more than a decade, recently has established a regulator. Ironically, if competition is to be used to its maximum extent in driving industry restructuring, it will require that regulators be proactive in keeping barriers to entry to a minimum and using competition as the most effective tool of regulation. In the telecom industry today, and for the foreseeable future, competition and regulation are not substitutes, they are complements. When one considers the dynamic changes underway today in telecom and neighbouring industries, and associated government policies – information infrastructure rollout, next generation internet services development, and preparation of the foundations for network economies – the role of telecom regulation becomes even more important. A highly imperfect telecom industry structure with extremely limited competition provides a very “biased” foundation for rolling out a new information infrastructure and implementing new policy objectives. The advantage of the technological and market dynamism is that industry and market boundaries are becoming blurred by convergence and the establishment of multisector utilities, raising new opportunities for both competition and monopoly. But the ex post “regulation” of competition authorities in dynamic markets of continuously changing definition cannot be effective in promoting competition. Its role is limited to preventing the further accumulation of monopoly power through anti-competitive mergers and punishing monopoly abuses after the fact. If the evolving opportunities for competition are to be actively promoted in the direction of achieving the new policy objectives, proactive ex ante regulation will be required. But the scope of that regulation must be defined with reference to the new and evolving industry conditions, not the historic definition of the telecom industry. Regulation and competition are complementary in this environment as well. This complementarity of regulation and competition applies equally in developing and developed countries. The major differences between them are the magnitude of the task at hand and the challenges they face. In the developed countries, both general market and governance/regulation institutions have been developed over a long period of time, providing strong institutional frameworks that can facilitate the telecom market and regulatory transitions now underway. Most developing countries do not have as strong a framework of such institutions. Thus, the role of the telecom regulator becomes pivotal to the successful implementation of policy objectives, and the stimulation of market development, participation and competition as key elements in policy implementation strategies. This has been demonstrated by the successes achieved by those countries that have established strong, independent and proactive regulatory authorities. The decision by the WDR to focus on the structure and priorities of next generation regulation does not raise an issue of whether regulation is substituting for competition. Rather, it raises the issue of the structure of regulation that will be able to promote competition most effectively as a essential tool for implementing the new network economy and information society policy objectives. That is an issue on which there is little knowledge, considerable controversy and a need for informed policy and regulatory decisions. It is an issue where the contributions of people with a variety of diverse experiences are needed, as well as a dialogue to test the evidence and enrich the knowledge base. William Melody Follow the dialogue post a question or make a comment at http://www.regulateonline.org/dialogue/ . New WDR Research Partner The TU Delft Interfaculty Research Program, Design and Management of Infrastructures (DIOC), is a new research partner for the WDR project. The program examines the interrelations between technical, economic and policy factors in the design and management of a wide variety of infrastructures. Director Margot Weijnen notes: "the synergies and common interest betweeen the DIOC program and the WDR are substantial. The DIOC is delighted to be a research partner as the research will provide additional benefit for both the DIOC and WDR." For more on the DIOC go to http://www.infrastructures.tudelft.nl/ Registering for the Online Dialogue While the WDR Online Dialogue is open to everyone, you might find that it is easier and faster to follow the discussion if you register as a regular user. It is easy to do and it offers a number of advantages. How do I register? Near the top right of the Online Dialogue page click on register. That will take you to a page where you can type in a login name of your choice, your real name and email. The rest of the information is optional. Click on REGISTER and your password will be emailed to you. You can then use your login name and password to log into the site (click on login just to the left of register. Why should I register? Once you are registered for the Online Dialogue and log into the site, you can "subscribe" to any or all of the forums. To do so, click on the forum's name from the main Online Dialogue screen, and then click on subscribe. As a subscriber you will: 1. Be able to see which of the forums you subscribe to have new messages. If there is a new message, the folder icon on the left of the forum name will be red instead of yellow. 2. When you subscribe to a forum, you are asked if you want to receive emails from the forum. If you say yes, you will receive a text message whenever a message is posted to the forum. This is useful if you have a dialup connection and prefer to read messages offline or if you want to save time by being notified of new contributions to the dialogue rather than having to go to the site to see if new comments have been posted. 3. When you post a question or comment, your name will be automatically inserted. Registered users are also able to use use their login id and password to edit their messages later on. Please note, we respect your privacy. Unsubscribing from a forum is just as easy as subscribing and we will never give your email address to a third party. Other News LIRNE.NET course The dialogue continues offline at a LIRNE.NET course to be held February 24 to March 1 in Grenada in the Caribbean. For more information on the course Designing Effective Telecom Regulation for Small Countries, visit the course webpage at http://www.lirne.net/training/grenada2002/ WDR at Euro CPR WDR researchers, Rohan Samarajiva & Anders Henten will present a paper titled, Rationales for Convergence and Multi-sector Regulation at the European Communications Policy Research Conference in Barcelona, March 24-26, 2002. The paper will be available on the WDR site on March 27, 2002. See the Euro CPR site at http://www.encip.org/static/EUROCPR/programme_eurocpr2002.html Questions and support If you have questions about WDR, send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For technical matters, contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or see the Frequently Asked Questions section in the Online Dialogue at http://www.regulateonline.org/dialogue/ WDR e-Brief editor Bruce Girard Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The WDR e-Brief is a bi-weekly bulletin from the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies <http://www.regulateonline.org>. To unsubscribe, send a message to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it World Dialogue on Regulation c/o LIRNE.NET Technical University of Denmark Center for Tele-Information, Building 371 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DENMARK Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Phone: +45 4587 1577 - Fax: +45 4596 3171 http://www.regulateonline.org |
