The heart of regulation is regulating access prices. It is the key to new entrant business models. The previous section warned of regulatory over-reach on mandating access services because not all inputs are essential, bottle-neck input services so making them available will deter new investment. This section alerts regulators to how access pricing can shape competition.
The final column of Table 4.1 provides a mapping between the access products discussed in the previous section and the approaches to pricing them which are discussed in this section. The first two columns come from Table 1.2 defining markets suitable for ex-ante regulation in the EU.
Table 4.1: Access Products and Pricing Options
Benchmarking is a pricing methodology that can (and has) been used for every service and is probably the most practical method for small developing countries.
In developed countries fundamental changes in the approach to access pricing are taking place with the transition to all digital networks. Developing countries have the opportunity to leap-frog legacy pricing approaches as the networks being built now are digital.
This section explores the following topics:
· Policy Issues
· Key Concepts
· Pricing Interconnection
· Pricing Unbundled Access
· Pricing Infrastructure Sharing
· Pricing Resale