The paradox of Achilles and the tortoise would appear to be applicable to today's telecommunications market in Europe. The current regulation of said market is built on the concept of the 'investment ladder' proposed or popularised by Dr Martin Cave in an article published in 2004.
It is a well-known fact that the provision of telecommunications services requires the deployment of physical infrastructures, i.e. the network, specifically known as the access network or 'last mile'. Accordingly, competency in telecommunications services would, in principle, require the existence of different operators' infrastructures.
However, governments say that if the sector were to be completely deregulated from the beginning, there would be a high risk of negative effects for society, such as price increases or market closing. As a result, the legislative model applied in the European Union and other Western countries enables competency in services on one single network: that of the former monopolistic operator or 'incumbent' operator, without the subsequent need for network deployment.
|