January 24, 2008 – While the United States has moved away from unbundling regulations in recent years, the European Union has increasingly adopted them in order to stimulate broadband investment. A new paper by Scott Wallsten assembles a unique panel dataset to test the effects of different types of unbundling regulations on broadband penetration and speeds across OECD countries. Wallsten finds that unbundling regulations do not promote broadband investment and may even reduce it. He also finds, however, that rules that make it easier for an entrant to interconnect are positively correlated with broadband penetration and speed.
Whence Competition in Network Industries?
Broadband and Unbundling Regulations in OECD Countries
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