Discussion: A view from outside the industry

Abstract

Because my expertise is not the telecommunications industry, I will approach the issues generically. From what I understand, the intention is to enhance competition and explicitly capture the value of any subsidies by allowing some parties to use part of the infrastructure facilities of others. If there is no explicit limitation on how long this phase will last, then there might be an incentive to delay if there are no strategic considerations. That’s because if you can lease facilities in the short term versus sinking a large investment to create your own infrastructure (given the uncertainty — technological and otherwise — in the environment), it may create a bias to delay, to benefit from a “wait-and-see” approach.