Access regime "incapable" of dealing with the future fibre network

Stuart Corner
Friday, 07 March 2008 02:16

IT Policy - Regulation

"This bias towards investment at the expense of achieving any-to-any connectivity let alone that of promoting competition becomes particularly insidious when considering the bottleneck nature of fibre in th customer access network, the technological potential to close access and the propensity for a 'capital strike' of investment until the regulatory regime submits to closure."

Kelso has no time for infrastructure providers demanding 'access holidays' - protection form being forced to provide access at regulated prices - because they have the effect of restricting access to a closed group of users and therefore do not enhance any-to-any connectivity.

At the end of the day, however investors have to believe that the risk rewards equation stacks up and Kelso argues that there needs to be a regulatory mechanism for facilitating industry arrangement for co-operative infrastructure investment where the alternative would be the creation of an enduring national monopoly by an incumbent. "Shared infrastructure lowers commercial risk by encouraging differentiated competition that increases infrastructure competition and overall market demand."

Kelso has submitted the thesis "Open Access to Next Generation Broadband" to the Queensland University of Technology. He told iTWire he was hoping to make it accessible on the University's web site but is unable to do so until copyright issues are resolved.