Telecommunication

ERCC offers a comprehensive set of services to the telecommunications industry, including regulatory agencies (regulators), service providers, and other industry participants. Our advisory to the industry combines the expertise of professional economists, and market and regulatory analysts. We assist our clients with a wide range of policy and regulatory issues. In addition, we provide management solutions to the same clients.

ERCC staff members have worked in over a dozen countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. This work – funded by regulatory and government agencies, private and public companies. and multilateral lending agencies – has focused on some of the key areas of industry and regulatory development:

Legal and Regulatory Framework:  Refining government policy, establishing statutes and executive orders codifying industry rules, and developing regulatory institutions and procedures for monitoring compliance and overall industry performance.

Scarce Resources Management:  Designing efficient regulatory policies and implementation tracks for spectrum (e.g., 4G) and numbering allocations. Our work have included auctions design and implementation for spectrum licenses, and plans involving portability.

Price / Tariff Development:  Specifying mechanisms for determining prices among all customer classes, development of retail and wholesale rate designs through cost-based formulas. 

Cost Models/Financial Modeling:  Designing financial models for interconnection and access pricing through cost models, asset and enterprise valuations, license valuation, business case and financial viability studies.

Privatization and Development:  Arranging for the privatization of state assets and the introduction of private capital into the industry through the sale of existing assets or independent development.

Industry Restructuring to Ensure Competitive Markets:  Specifying the optimal organization and ownership of assets and the most effective regulatory mechanisms for coordinating industry activity among private (and state owned) companies.

Our international clients are the regulatory agencies and private sector firms driving the development of the telecommunications industry. They include regulators, public and private companies, international institutions, and law firms.

P R E V I O U S  E N G A G E M E N T S :

ERCC’s telecommunications experts have comprehensive knowledge of the economics of telecommunications markets, the methods of regulation used by governments and corresponding compliance by the private sector. Our staff of professional economists has practical experience working in the telecommunications industry with multi-billion dollar operators and in regulatory agencies. Our recent engagements have included:

• Worked with ITU and World Bank to assist a number of national regulatory agencies formulate policies/regulation and carry out implementations

• Advised companies on regulatory strategy helping them in their discussions/negotiations with regulators, 

• Set maximum rates in regulated services

• Determined interconnection (IC) charges in various jurisdictions

• Develop IC Cost models for Mobile and Fixed-line operators

• Advised governments on privatization and analyzed the impact of privatization 

• Helped governments design regulatory and price control regimes 

• Advised operators and regulators on numbering management

• Assisted governments in the development of National Broadband Plan

• Advised regulators on spectrum management and auctions design and implementation

• Advised operators and regulators on spectrum licensing implementation—through auctions and beauty contests

• Calculated total factor productivity growth for operators for use in price cap adjustment factors

• Performed rate-of-return analysis for service categories of ROR regulated operators.

• Assessed market power in connection with mergers and acquisitions 

• Created and managed several financial planning systems that estimated competitive penetrations and bottom-line impacts on telecommunications products and services

• Developed tools for market analysis and demand forecasts. Used economic, statistical, and marketing techniques to estimate customer responses to telecommunications service offerings.

• Analyzed and recommended USO mechanisms for regulators

S A M P L E  T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S  P R O J E C T  T O P I C S :

Regulation

• Telecommunications Regulatory Guidelines/ Notifications  (Read More)
• Rate of return and price/incentive regulation
• Licensing: Spectrum (e.g. 4G) and operator licenses
• Design of Regulatory Regimes (Read More)
• Price/Tariff regulation  (Read More)
• Universal Service  (Read More)
• Rate Rebalancing  (Read More)
• Anti-competitive pricing: Tests and Safeguards
• Incentive Regulation (including Price Caps) and Total Factor Productivity  (Read More)
• Accounting Separations  
• Regulatory Impact Studies   
• Liberalization Roadmap

New Challenges

• Regulation of Next Generation Services  (Read More)
• National Broadband Plan  (Read More)

 Competition

• Competition Regulation (Read More)
• Fixed Line Competition
• Wireless Competition
• Competition among telecom and other companies
• Net Neutrality  (Read More)
• Data Service Competition
• Merger Analysis
• Interconnection and Access Cost Models/Modeling  (Read More)
• Price floors and safeguards for anti-competitive behavior  (Read More)
• NGN Cost Modeling  (Read More)
• Privatization and Industry Restructuring
• Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment
• Service Quality Measurement

Market and Cost Analysis

• Demand Analysis, Modeling, and Forecasting
• Market Dynamics
• Price Structures with non-Uniform Prices

 Research

• Policy Impact Analysis  (Read More)
• Cost-benefit Analysis of Public Policies
• Telecommunications and Economic Development
• Pricing and Packaging
• Spectrum Management and Pricing
• Cost Analysis and Estimation (incremental/marginal cost)
• Competitor Cost Modeling
• Efficiency Comparisons
• Estimation of Cost of Capital

Strategy

• Regulatory Strategy
• M&A and Investment Strategy
• Operational Strategy and Planning
• Price Strategy
• Corporate Finance Strategy
• Financial Modeling
• Investment Appraisal  (Read More)