Orada Teppayayon

Broadband universal service: A future path for Europe?

The phenomenon of broadband penetration growth which could be observed over time has increased year by year. Today, broadband is increasingly becoming an issue for universal service in advanced economies. Switzerland has been the first country to include broadband connections as part of the universal service obligation, since 1 January, 2008, although at modest speeds, and with some exceptions. In the United States, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has urged the FCC to consider including broadband as part of universal service. In Europe, , the recent EC communication on universal service specifically suggests for the European Union to analyse and discuss broadband as part of the future universal service obligation. In many OECD countries there have also been targeted broadband support programmes for rural and disadvantaged areas for a number of years. The list could be made quite long, and includes countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Turkey, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and many more. These programmes have typically involved support for construction of broadband infrastructure, either as direct state aid or as partial contributions from applicable universal service funds. The growing number of targeted broadband support programs raises the question if and when it will be possible to expand broadband into a universal service obligation (USO). Against this back-drop, this paper will provide an overview of current state and trends of universal service with focus on broadband access in European Union. First the paper will provide a brief market overview of broadband, and also briefly define the USO concept. The paper will then provide an historical overview of the universal service concept in the European legislation, with particular attention to early initiatives and discussions related to the implementation of a possible B-USO. The paper will emphasize that the current discussion on a future B-USO has long standing antecedents, running back to the 1987 Green Paper. The paper will moreover analyze the previous USO review, carried out in 2005-2006, and summarize views from stakeholder and Member States. The prospect of a B-USO must however be seen in the context of other initiatives and emphasis on broadband as a means to achieve a more dynamic European economy, and therefore various policy initiatives related to broadband are summarized. The paper will also offer some issues to consider for a broadband USO, from a general standpoint. As a conclusion, the paper will identify selected issues in implementing such a regulation.

Challenges of fibre-based infrastructures: a review of the NGA debate in Europe

To move towards an information society is a political goal of governments around the world. To achieve this goal, high-capacity broadband networks are regarded as fundamental infrastructure. An increase in broadband growth in a country results in increased opportunities for its people to participate in the network society. The EU, in particular, has initiated policies and regulations for more than ten years so that benefits of the information society can be fully enjoyed. The success of the EU is mostly based on DSL technology, which is driven by telecommunications regulations. Nevertheless, new applications and the increasing number of users will require more and more network capacity. While the EU leads the world in broadband penetration, it may fall behind in terms of competitiveness in the global market. The digital agenda in Europe has therefore been initiated to increase competitiveness through new fibre-based infrastructure. The main focus of this paper is on the NGA Recommendation. The paper analyses NGA in the EU based on a conceptual model that addresses the interaction between the strategic and the sector agenda.

Analysis of Internet Access in Thailand: Drivers and Barriers

Internet usage is growing around the world including in developing countries like Thailand. This study attempts to provide guidance to the National Regulatory Agency (NRA) by addressing the following question: What are the key determinant factors to explain the probability that an individual consumer uses the Internet? The multinomial logit model is employed to examine empirically whether the price of the service, accessibility to fixed telephony infrastructure, socioeconomic variables and area of residence have a systematic link to Internet usage for each technology. The data from a national survey in 2010 by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Thailand are used for the analysis. Four types of Internet technologies: dial-up, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), mobile broadband and Wi-Fi, are included in this study. Based on the findings, the variables with potential impact are price, fixed infrastructure, income, age of consumer and residential area. The impact of these factors varies across the technologies. The results of this paper are compatible with prior literature, although there are important differences: the infrastructure of fixed telephony is considered an important factor in stimulating Internet usage, and ADSL and mobile Internet connection are still considered to have inelastic prices. A policy recommendation that could encourage competition and growth in Internet usage is the development of a fixed and mobile infrastructure and allowing more competition at infrastructure and service level.