The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) enacted its Electronic Communications Law in 2011. The law, which came into effect in 2012, created the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, or Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Haberleşme Kurumu (BTHK). This law is largely based upon the European Union regulatory framework for electronic communications. Amongst the other powers and[…]
This study reviews universal service policy in a set of case study countries. It considers the services provided to consumers and the mechanisms for the provision and funding of those services. We find that the scope and definition of universal service varies considerably from one case study country to another. For example, in some EU[…]
Plum was appointed by Ofcom’s Competition Group (Financial and Economic Modelling Division) to carry out an external and independent review to assess the quality of a series of LRIC modelling workbooks and associated documents, in association with the wholesale local access charge control WLACC market review in the UK. Our work included a detailed review[…]
The telecommunications sector is characterised by substantial fixed costs and significant economies of scale. In a macrostate this usually does not matter because the main operators function at a point well above minimum efficient scale. But in a typical island state in the Caribbean the main operators usually operate at a point well below minimum[…]
The total cost, number of premises connected and overall net-benefit to the country of a broadband USO for the UK are all sensitive to design choices such as download speed, cost threshold, assumed take-up rates and funding mechanism – so were the findings of Plum’s study for the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG). The BSG is[…]
Plum has recently completed a detailed report assessing the commercial and economic impacts that could result from important policy changes affecting use of intellectual property in technical standards. These changes were, rather contentiously, adopted by the US based IEEE organisation in 2015, following support from the US Department of Justice. Our report reviews intensive industry[…]
Innovation is the lifeblood of companies, especially in the telecommunications and technology sectors, as a means to contribute directly to top line growth, healthy margins, and shareholder value, and will be crucial in bringing 5G to market. And yet in many cases, innovation is stifled or fails even to get off the ground. Why is[…]
Plum has recently undertaken a detailed review of Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) technology, with assessment on commercial and economic efficiencies and regulatory policies. MOCN brings incremental benefits over Multi-Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN) technology in that, additionally, MOCN enables spectrum sharing. With ongoing traffic demands towards 4.5/5G, we believe that MOCN technology and spectrum sharing[…]
In 2016, Vodafone New Zealand and Sky Network Television Limited proposed to merge their businesses, and applied to the New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) for clearance. Under the New Zealand Commerce Act 1986, the NZCC can grant clearance if it is satisfied that the Proposed Transaction will not have the effect or likely effect of[…]
Recently we’ve been working on expanding the capability of one of our mobile network models – the iterated cost (or bootstrap) model. In a nutshell, this model treats buyers and sellers of mobile data as rational economic agents. When the cost of supplying data falls, consumers buy more of it. Similarly, operators invest in additional[…]