THE FAILURE OF COMPETITIVE ENTRY INTO FIXED-LINE TELECOMMUNICATIONS: WHO IS AT FAULT?

Between 1998 and 2003, dozens of companies entered newly liberalized telecommunications markets in OECD countries. In Europe and North America, most of the entrants that attempted to use incumbents' “unbundled local loops,” at regulated wholesale prices, to offer narrowband services—essentially “plain old telephone service”—have failed. Even though Europe, the United States and Canada liberalized at different times and with somewhat different …