Systematically reviews recent innovations in the economic theory of pricing and extends results to the conditions which characterize telecommunications markets

Many developing countries have experienced significant developments in their telecommunications network. Countries in Africa are no exception to this. The paper examines what factor facilitates most network expansion using micro data from 45 fixed-line and mobile telephone operators in 18 African countries. In theory the telecommunications sector has two sector-specific characteristics: network externalities and discriminatory pricing. It finds that many telephone operators in the region use peak and off-peak prices and termination-based price discrimination, but are less likely to rely on strategic fee schedules such as tie-in arrangements. The estimated demand function based on a discreet consumer choice model indicates that termination-based discriminatory pricing can facilitate network expansion. It also shows that the implied price-cost margins are significantly high. Thus, price liberalization could be conducive to development of the telecommunications network led by the private sector. Some countries in Africa are still imposing certain price restrictions. But more important, it remains a policy issue how the authorities should ensure reciprocal access between operators at reasonable cost.

David Gabel and David F. Weiman The chapters in this volwne address the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises the important policy questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. To foster rivalry in any industry, suppliers must have access to customers. But unlike in other sectors, the very organization of network industries creates major impediments to potential entrants trying to carve out a niche in the market. In traditional sectors such as gas, electric, rail, and telephone services, these barriers take the form of the large private and social costs necessary to duplicate the physical infrastructure of pipelines, wires, or tracks. Few firms can afford to finance such an undertaking, because the level of sunk costs and the very large scale economies make it extremely risky. In other newer sectors, entrants face less tangible but no less pressing constraints. In the microcomputer industry, for example, high switching costs can prevent users from experimenting with alternative, but perhaps more efficient hardware platforms or operating systems. Although gateway technologies can reduce these barriers, the installed base of an incumbent can create powerful bandwagon effects that reinforce its advantage (such as the greater availability of compatible peripherals and software applications). In the era of electronic banking, entrants into the automated teller machine· (A TM) and credit card markets face a similar problem of establishing a ubiquitous presence.

The wireless telecommunications industry has seen extraordinary growth over the last decade and associated with the widespread adoption of wireless phone service are peculiar pricing schemes such as three-part tariffs and on-net/off-net pricing. This dissertation examines the interaction of consumer behavior and pricing schemes in the wireless telecommunications industry. Chapter 2 addresses in a theoretical model the interaction of consumers' consumption patterns over the billing cycle with the monopolist's provision of access. The service provider designs a menu of contracts to screen privately informed consumers who learn about their actual demand in a sequential manner over the billing period. The model shows that the distorted contracts in the profit-maximizing menu of tariff options are characterized by an increasing marginal price schedule. Three-part pricing schemes commonly observed in the wireless telecommunications industry consisting of a fixed monthly fee, an allowance of minutes and a positive marginal price for minutes consumed in excess of the allowance can be reconciled with rational consumer behavior if the consumer model accounts for the sequential consumption pattern over the billing cycle. Chapter 3 examines termination-based price discrimination, where the price a mobile customers pays for a call to a subscriber on another network (off-net) exceeds the price for a call to a subscriber on the same network (on-net). A standard Hotelling-type model of network competition is combined with closed user groups such as a family or a group of friends who are able to internalize tariff-mediated network externalities when choosing their network. The model results show that termination differentials can reduce social welfare and contradict the commonly held belief that the presence of closed user groups can mitigate networks' market power. The empirical analysis in Chapter 4 presents a structural consumer model of tariff choice and consumption in the prese.

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Developing countries apply numerous sector-specific taxes to telecommunications, whose buoyant revenues and formal enterprises provide a convenient “tax handle”. This paper explores whether there is an economic rationale for sector-specific taxes on telecommunications and, if so, what form they should take to balance the competing goals of promoting connectivity and mobilizing revenues. A survey of the literature finds that limited telecoms competition likely creates rents that could efficiently be taxed. We propose a “pecking order” of sector-specific taxes that could be levied in addition to standard income and value-added taxes, based on capturing rents and minimizing distortions. Taxes that target possible economic rents or profits are preferable, but their administrative challenges may necessitate reliance on service excises at the cost of higher consumer prices and lower connectivity. Taxes on capital inputs and consumer access, which distort production and restrict network access, should be avoided; so should tax incentives, which are not needed to attract foreign capital to tap a local market.