IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v26yi5-6p295-310.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

"Open access:" the ideal and the real

Author

Listed:
  • Bittlingmayer, George
  • Hazlett, Thomas W.

Abstract

"Open access" would allow ISPs to use a cable operator's broadband connection under regulated terms and conditions. Advocates stress the desirability of an "end-to-end" architecture for the Internet and the danger that cable operators will use their control over the last mile to limit consumer choice and stifle innovation. Opponents contend that wholesale price controls and other regulatory burdens under what they term "forced access" would in fact slow down the deployment of broadband, stifle innovation and harm consumers. The fears of "open access" advocates seem largely speculative at this point. Evidence from related policies also favors the opponents. "Closed" cable systems are beating their "open" DSL competitors in the market place; analogous regulation of cable TV did not serve consumers well; and forced "unbundling" of local service has been controversial and largely ineffective. In addition, relevant technology stocks declined in price with political and legal victories for "open access" and increased when it suffered setbacks.

Suggested Citation

  • Bittlingmayer, George & Hazlett, Thomas W., 0. ""Open access:" the ideal and the real," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(5-6), pages 295-310, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:26:y::i:5-6:p:295-310
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596102000149
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pio Baake & Brigitte Preißl (Eds.). Johannes M. Bauer & Per Björstedt & Elena Gallo & Anders Henten & Sven Lindmark & Martijn Poel & Enzo Pontarollo & Knud Erik Skouby & Jason Whalley, 2006. "Local Loop Unbundling and Bitstream Access: Regulatory Practice in Europe and the U.S," DIW Berlin: Politikberatung kompakt, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, volume 20, number pbk20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:26:y::i:5-6:p:295-310. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.