ADVANCED COURSE ON REGULATORY ECONOMICS AND PROCESS: INTERCONNECTION, PRICING, AND COMPETITION

Transcription

1 ADVANCED COURSE ON REGULATORY ECONOMICS AND PROCESS: INTERCONNECTION, PRICING, AND COMPETITION A Program for the National Telecommunications Commission of Thailand Provided by the Public Utility Research Center University of Florida April 2-13, 2007 Gainesville, Florida USA 8:30-10:00 am Session 1 Welcome and Overview Mark Jamison, Overview of Regulation: Purposes, Structure, and Strategy Group discussion of objectives and purpose o What challenges, if unresolved, will most damage telecommunications in Thailand 5-10 years from now? o What problems are most urgent? o o What problems are most important? What tools and analytic techniques would make the most significant impact on you and your organization Course overview Session 2 Legal Frameworks and Institutions for Regulating Telecommunications Mark Jamison, Forms of regulatory instruments: Licenses, Statutes, Contracts Case study of interest map in telecom reforms Development of an interest map for Thailand Agency roles in competition, policy making, and convergence Course Calendar Monday, April 2, 2007 Session 3 Competition: Overview of Telecommunications Liberalization and Markets Mark Jamison, Problems and benefits of telecommunications competition Key policies for opening markets to competition o Addressing problems that limit entry o Addressing problems that limit consumer choice o Essential facilities o Interconnection policies Session 4 Experiences in Telecommunications Competition: What Works and What Does Not Work Jennifer Ullman, Verizon Essential elements of a competitive framework Country examples Examples where competition has progressed Why some policies fail Evening 1

2 Session 5 Interconnection: Overview of Interconnection Purposes, Mechanics, and Approaches Tim Tardiff, Huron Consulting Forms of interconnection One-way interconnection arrangements o International o Unbundling Two-way interconnection o Fixed-fixed, mobile-mobile, fixedmobile Collocation Asymmetric interconnection regulation Connections and disconnects with universal service Session 6 Interconnection: Interconnection Contracts Mark Jamison, Features of an interconnection contract Case study in interconnection contracts Tuesday, April 3, 2007 Session 7 Interconnection: Principles and Exercises in Pricing One-Way and Two-Way Interconnection Tim Tardiff, Huron Consulting Principles for efficient prices Typical approaches for regulating interconnection prices Other options for interconnection pricing Key costing issues in interconnection Problems and exercises Session 8 Introduction of Cost Model Exercise Mark Jamison, Teams form to represent different interests in performing cost studies Each team will prepare a cost study Wednesday evening after the cost model demonstrations Review with Faculty from Thailand Concepts and issues analyzed on Monday and Tuesday Evening 2

3 Session 9 Interconnection: Costing Issues in the United States Jim Stegeman, CostQuest Cost modeling issues and how they are addressed in various countries o Network architecture o Technology o Network utilization o Depreciation o Operating expenses o Cost of capital Session 10 Interconnection: Exercise in Applying Cost Models in the United States Jim Stegeman, CostQuest Demonstration of using New Zealand cost model Hands-on exercise Wednesday, April 4, 2007 Session 11 Interconnection Cost Case Study: Preparing Cost Studies Jim Stegeman, CostQuest, and Jim Sichter, Teams complete cost studies and prepare presentations Session 12 Interconnection: Experiences with Cost Models in the United States Nara Srinivasa, Texas PUC What were the most controversial issues and how were they resolved? How were data limitations handled? What were the most important assumptions and how were they decided? Ultimately, what role did costing play in setting rates? Evening Teams work on cost modeling exercise 3

4 Session 13 Interconnection: Cost Modeling in the Caribbean Nigel Gordon, Cable & Wireless Network costing principles Network resources used in interconnection Mapping network facilities Identifying and measuring cost drivers Using Activity Based Costing Issues in using cost models Thursday, April 5, 2007 Session 15 Interconnection Cost Case Study: Regulator s Decision and Debriefing Mark Jamison, Nigel Gordon, Jim Sichter Strategic interests in presenting and analyzing costs Key questions and interpretation Keys to conducting sensitivity analyses Session 14 Interconnection Cost Case Study: Presentation of Cost Studies Mark Jamison, Nigel Gordon, Jim Sichter Teams present cost studies to expert regulator and to Dispute Resolution Committee 3:00-4:00 pm Session 16 Interconnection: Research Priorities for NTC and Review with Faculty from Thailand Mark Jamison, Discussion with staff and Committee on papers that staff should work on Concepts and issues analyzed this week Evening 4

5 Session 17 Interconnection: Case Study in an Interconnection Dispute Mark Jamison, Preparing the organization for an interconnection dispute Identifying key issues and options Recognizing problems before they occur Approaches to facilitating successful negotiations Session 18 Interconnection: Approaches to Interconnection Dispute Resolution John Antonuk, The Liberty Consulting Group Why disputes occur Principles of dispute resolution Alternative approaches to dispute resolution Preparing for the process Cases and examples Friday, April 6, 2007 Session 19 Interconnection: Thinking Politically about Interconnection Mark Jamison Identifying stakeholder interests Getting on the balcony to foresee events Testing interests and perspectives Identifying approaches for engaging stakeholders Session 20 Mid-Course Exam Mark Jamison, Evening and Weekend 5

6 Session 21 Competition: Market Structures in Telecommunications Mark Jamison, Forms of Competition o Perfect, Effective, Sustainable Competition o Contestability Benchmarking Competition Competition Policy and Regulation o Ex Ante and Ex Post Regulation o Regulatory Forbearance Concepts in Competition Policy o Market Definition o Market Power o Barriers to Entry o Essential Facilities Session 22 Competition: Competition Policy and Antitrust Principles Roger Blair, Definition of Market Dominance Abuse of Dominance Refusal to Deal Price Squeeze Customer Lock-In Predatory Pricing Exclusion Buying Power Tying and Bundling Monday, April 9, 2007 Session 23 Competition: Essentials for Facilitating Competition Mark Jamison, Case study in opening a market to competition Session 24 Competition: Anticompetitive Conduct, Mergers and Cooperative Agreements in Network Industries Mark Jamison, Network Effects Systems Competition Customer Lock-In Cross-Subsidization Horizontal Mergers Vertical Mergers Joint Ventures Collusive Arrangements Evening 6

7 Session 25 Competition: Exercises in Analyzing Market Competition and Mergers Mark Jamison, Case study in analyzing market competition Session 26 Competition: Issues in Market Conduct David Sappington, Incentives and techniques for sabotaging rivals Anticompetitive conduct by state owned enterprises Myths about interconnection pricing Tuesday, April 10, 2007 Session 27 Tariffing: Price Cap Regulation and Hybrids David Sappington, Principles of price cap regulation Choosing inflation indices Choosing X-factors Developing price baskets Designing options Session 28 Tariffing: Cases in Telecommunications Price Cap Regulation David Sappington, Options in setting X-factors Approaches for estimating average price changes Combining price regulation with deregulation Review with Faculty from Thailand Concepts and issues analyzed on Monday and Tuesday Evening 7

8 Session 29 Tariffing: Introduction to Financial Statements and Analysis Mark Jamison, Overview of financial statements Regulatory priorities in reviewing financial statements Case study in financial statement analysis Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Session 31 Tariffing: Debriefing on Case Study in Reviewing a Pricing Proposal Eric Chiang, Analyzing impacts of regulatory proposals Effects of economic changes: Inflation, economic fluctuations, productivity, and demand Session 30 Tariffing: Case Study in Reviewing a Pricing Proposal Eric Chiang, Exercise in choosing X-factors and price baskets Operator responses to regulatory decisions Financial impacts of regulatory decisions Session 32 Tariffing: Developing and Using Accounting Separations David Brevitz, Consultant Purposes of accounting separations Principles for cost allocation Setting and enforcing accounting policies Evening 8

9 Session 33 Tariffing: Case Study of a Regulator Announcing a Pricing Decision Mark Jamison, Practical issues in price cap regulation Impacts of information asymmetries Obtaining information from financial markets Tradeoffs between predictability and flexibility Thursday, April 12, 2007 Session 35 Tariffing: Principles and Practices for Price Rebalancing David Brevitz, Consultant Principles of price rebalancing Price rebalancing drivers Case study in price rebalancing Session 34 Tariffing: Case Study in Reviewing a Pricing Proposal David Brevitz, Consultant Example of regulatory commission reviewing a pricing proposal. Lessons include: Obtaining information from operators Practices for decision making with incomplete information Identifying key issues Setting priorities in regulatory investigations Session 36 Tariffing: Constraints on Anti-Competitive Pricing Mark Jamison, Review of anticompetitive pricing issues Use of price floors, price ceilings, and imputation Regulating wholesale versus retail prices Establishing wholesale price discounts Review with Faculty from Thailand Concepts and issues analyzed during the week. Identification of research topics for the year. Evening 9

10 Session 37 Tariffing: Bundled Services, Two-Part Tariffs, and Optional Tariffs Mark Jamison, Economics of bundling, multipart tariffs, and optional tariffs Examples and problems Cases in pricing Friday, April 13, 2007 Session 39 Final Exam Mark Jamison, Session 38 Convergence Issues: Policies and Regulations for Next Generation Networks Mark Jamison, Convergence drivers and convergence patterns Role of regulator in convergence Interconnection in IP networks Session 40 Closing thoughts and action plans Mark Jamison, Key lessons and implementation Work plans for research papers Evening Awards Dinner 10