Regulatory Response to Telecom-Video-Data Convergence

April 9, 2008: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location: 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building, the Maria & Dado Banatao Conference Room, UC Berkeley

Yale Braunstein [Professor in the School of Information, UC Berkeley]

Part of the CITRIS Research Exchange at UC Berkeley. The complete schedule for the fall semester is online at RE-Spring2008.

Abstract:

With the emergence of true-facilities-based competition for wired voice, broadband, and video services in many markets, directly competing services are being offered by major carriers. However, these are still likely to be priced at other than competitive levels. The transition from monopoly to (less-than perfect) competition has also brought about distributional issues such as cream skimming. This talk provides a context for the analysis of this problem and explores possible solutions.

Biography:

Yale M. Braunstein is a Professor at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a doctorate in economics from Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of over 50 articles in the fields of economics and information science. He focuses on competition in information products and services, in particular on how new generations of products and technologies alter the commercial landscape for incumbent players. His research areas include economies of scale and scope, pricing, market structure, and the economics of intellectual property rights.

Professor Braunstein has developed financial, forecasting, tariff, and valuation models in areas that include cellular, fixed, and international telecommunications; cable, satellite, and IP television; and broadband. This work has been used by applicants for licenses, regulators, and policy makers in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, China, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK.