Facility based competition in telecommunications : three essays on two-way access and one essay on three-way access

摘要

In order to reap all benefits from telecommunications, competing firmstypically have to cooperate in order to exploit economies of scale and scope.Thus, firms being active in the same market are supposed to compete insome dimensions and cooperate in other dimensions. There is potentially atrade-off between cooperation and competition. In this dissertation fourcases of interplay between competition and cooperation are investigated andwe find that in some cases there is indeed a trade-off. In some cases (but notall cases) firms can arrange their cooperation such that they are able to softencompetition and increase prices. Whether such effects are present or notdepends on technology and market characteristics. It is accordinglynecessary to carry out case by case analysis in order to assess the interplaybetween cooperation and competition. A common feature of the four papersin the dissertation is that they take as a starting point a concrete and policyrelevant issue where telecommunications firms have to cooperate. Gametheoretic models are adapted to each case and particular care is taken incapturing relevant market and technology features.