TABLE OF CONTENTS A telecommunications services regulator has to regulate a rapidly changing market. Some of this flux is a result of the regulation itself, but not all. Were the advancement of competition the only change, then a regulator's task might eventually terminate after the transition from monopoly to stable competition. In reality, the market is exposed to technological evolution, product innovation and commercial realignments. The regulator must examine each of these, and react by continuing, withdrawing, amending or extending the intervention currently being practised. The aim in all cases will be to ensure that consumers enjoy the best products at the most advantageous prices, using competition as the primary medium of achieving these goals. The regulator must, therefore, act against actual or potential exercise of market power to the consumers' detriment.
Technological advances may create new markets, or significantly change the economics of an existing market. The following and similar developments call for regulators to look at market trends and determine the most appropriate form of regulation, if any.
Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL) technologies, described in Chapter 8, open a new market for residential and small business broadband service.
Mobile network operators, reaping economies of scale, achieved rapid growth by lowering prices. This transformed their business from a premium, professional product to a mass market.
Mobile networks are beginning to compete with and substitute for fixed line service in certain market segments, for example teenagers and second lines.
As intelligent network services...
