Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/44342 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
21st European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS): "Telecommunications at New Crossroads: Changing Value Configurations, User Roles, and Regulation", Copenhagen, Denmark, 13th-15th September 2010 No. 9
Publisher: 
International Telecommunications Society (ITS), Calgary
Abstract: 
Geographical averaging of retail and wholesale prices could distort incentives for bypass entry in both the metropolitan and the high-cost areas. The two-instrument approach to universal service support, proposed in (Armstrong, 2001), could enhance efficiency, through competitive and technological neutrality. Alternatively, the industry support to high cost areas could be substituted by redistributive fiscal measures or public subsidies. Using evidence from Italy we suggest that tackling demographic, educational, and income inequalities is necessary, even in low cost areas, to support further broadband penetration. We estimate logistic regressions of Internet and broadband use at home, and show that a substantial increase of broadband penetration is possible in Italy only if specific platforms and applications are made available to older and less educated households. Therefore, a critical mass of services could help reaching the critical mass of users that make Next Generation Access Networks viable.
Subjects: 
Infrastructural Digital divide
Cultural Digital Divide
Geographical crosssubsidies
Efficient bypass
Critical mass of services
JEL: 
L51
L96
Document Type: 
Conference Paper

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