Evaluating a decade of mobile termination rate regulation

We re-consider the impact that regulation of call termination on mobile phones has had on mobile customers’ bills. Using a large panel covering 27 countries, we find that the “waterbed” phenomenon, initially observed until early 2006, has disappeared over the 10-year period, 2002-2011. We argue that this is due to the changing nature of the industry, whereby mobile-to-mobile traffic now plays a much bigger role compared to fixed-to-mobile calls in earlier periods. This implies that regulation does not have unintended consequences anymore. Over the same decade, there is no evidence that regulation caused a reduction in mobile operators’ profits and investments.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  Unknown venue

• Publication date

  2015-08-01

• Fields of study

  Engineering, Business, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/ECOJ.12194
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Calling circles: network competition with non-uniform calling patterns

  2014cited by this paper
• The impact of mandatory entitlement to paid leave on employment in the UK

  2014cited by this paper
• Mobile Termination, Network Externalities, and Consumer Expectations∗ short title: Mobile Termination and Consumer Expectations

  2013cited by this paper
• Termination fees revisited

  2013cited by this paper
• The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy

  2012cited by this paper
• Testing the “Waterbed” Effect in Mobile Telephony

  2011influential reference
• Handbook of telecommunications economics, volume I. structure, regulation & competition. Cave, M., Majumdar

  2010cited by this paper
• Mobile Call Termination Revisited

  2009cited by this paper
• Mobile Call Termination

  2009influential reference
• Wireless Communications

  2005cited by this paper
• The Effects of Regulating Mobile Termination Rates for Asymmetric Networks

  2005cited by this paper
• Access Pricing Under Competition: An Application to Cellular Networks

  2003cited by this paper
• The theory of access pricing and interconnection

  2001cited by this paper
• Mobile network competition, customer ignorance and fixed-to-mobile call prices

  2000cited by this paper
• Network Interconnection in Telecommunications

  1998influential reference
• Network Competition: I. Overview and Nondiscriminatory Pricing

  1998cited by this paper

• Evaluating the Impact of Price Caps - Evidence from the European Roam-Like-at-Home Regulation

  2024cites this paper
• Narrowing the ‘digital divide’: the role of fixed and mobile nfrastructure

  2024cites this paper
• Impact of Roaming Regulation on Revenues and Prices of Mobile Operators in the EU

  2023cites this paper
• Are telecommunications regulators correct in their beliefs that network size affects origination/termination?

  2021cites this paper
• An assessment of the liberalization and the evolution of competition in the Moroccan mobile market

  2021cites this paper
• Mobile termination rates and retail regimes in Europe and the US: A unified theory of CPP and RPP

  2021cites this paper
• Distribution of the benefits of regulation vs. competition: The case of mobile telephony in South Africa

  2021cites this paper
• The Economics and Regulation of Network Industries: Telecommunications and Beyond

  2021cites this paper
• Mobile Telephony in Emerging Markets: The Importance of Dual-SIM Phones

  2020cites this paper
• Comparative approaches to key issues in the economic regulation of telecommunications markets in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

  2020cites this paper
• WIDER Working Paper 2020/84-Comparative approaches to key issues in the economic regulation of telecommunications markets in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

  2020cites this paper
• The Digital Donga

  2020cites this paper
• Testing the waterbed effect for India’s telecom industry

  2019cites this paper
• Narrowing the 'Digital Divide': The Role of Complementarities between Fixed and Mobile Data in South Africa

  2019cites this paper
• Two Sided Markets: The Case of The Waterbed Effect in OECD Mobile Telecommunications Markets

  2019cites this paper
• Testing the waterbed effect for India’s telecom industry

  2019cites this paper
• The European Framework for Regulating Telecommunications: A 25-year Appraisal

  2019cites this paper
• Media see-saws: Winners and losers in platform markets

  2019cites this paper
• Has Europe missed the endgame of telecommunications policy?

  2019cites this paper
• Asymmetric Networks and Access Charges

  2019cites this paper
• The European Framework for Regulating Telecommunications: A 25-year Appraisal

  2019cites this paper
• Benefits of Regulation vs. Competition Where Inequality is High: The Case of Mobile Telephony in South Africa

  2019influential citation
• The effects of lower mobile termination rates in South Africa

  2018cites this paper
• Rational Regulatory Framework Regarding the Appraisal of Mobile Telecommunication Market Domination

  2017influential citation
• EVALUATING MOBILE CONSOLIDATION 1 Evaluating market consolidation in mobile communications

  2017cites this paper
• Regulated termination rates and competition among Tunisian mobile network operators. Barriers, bias, and incentives

  2017cites this paper
• Regulatory inertia versus ICT dynamics: The case of product innovations☆

  2017cites this paper
• The Impact of Telecommunication Regulatory Policy on Mobile Retail Price in Sub-Saharan African Countries

  2017cites this paper
• Evaluating Market Consolidation in Mobile Communications

  2017cites this paper
• International network competition under national regulation

  2016cites this paper
• The Impact of the Call Termination Rate Reduction on Consumer Surplus in South Africa

  2016cites this paper
• Pricing strategies and competition in the mobile broadband market

  2016cites this paper
• Net Neutrality: A Fast Lane to Understanding the Trade-offs

  2016cites this paper
• Pricing strategies and competition in the mobile broadband market

  2016cites this paper
• Do call termination rate interventions affect developing countries (with smaller fixed line networks) differently? Testing for the ‘waterbed effect' for non-linear tariffs in South Africa

  2016cites this paper
• Series Media Seesaws : Winners and Losers on Media Platforms

  2015cites this paper
• Measuring the Information Society Report

  2015cites this paper
• Competition and Regulation in the Retail Broadband Sector: a Holistic Approach for Pricing Policies

  2015cites this paper
• Competition and regulations in telecommunications with asymmetric firms

  2015influential citation
• Economic Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector in South Africa 2009-2014

  2015cites this paper
• Media see-saws : winners and losers on media platforms

  2015influential citation
• Reassessing competition concerns in electronic communications markets

  2014cites this paper
• Will the U.S. and EU telecommunications policies converge? A survey

  2014influential citation
• Market Definition , Market Power and Regulatory Interaction in Electronic Communications Markets

  2014cites this paper