The impact of data caps on mobile broadband Internet access: A welfare analysis
| Autor: | Stefano Galavotti, Ottorino Chillemi, Benedetto Gui |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Economics and Econometrics
business.product_category business.industry Mobile broadband 05 social sciences TheoryofComputation_GENERAL Social Welfare Internet traffic Bandwidth cap Management Monitoring Policy and Law Microeconomics Monopolistic competition 0502 economics and business Internet access The Internet 050207 economics business 050205 econometrics Valuation (finance) |
| Zdroj: | Information Economics and Policy. 50:100843 |
| ISSN: | 0167-6245 |
| Popis: | We study the properties of simple mobile broadband Internet plans characterized by a data cap and an up-front price. Assuming demand uncertainty and a positive correlation between users’ valuations and (expected) demands, we show that a monopolistic provider does always find it convenient to offer one plan with binding cap together with an unlimited one. We characterize all the elements of the profit-maximizing plans, showing that medium users, but not heavy users, will incur the risk of being capped, and that, relative to the benchmark case of unlimited access only, the introduction of a plan with cap leads to a redistribution of surplus from high users to low users. The overall effect on social welfare and users’ surplus is, in general, ambiguous, but is certainly negative if low valuation users have a sufficiently homogeneous demand for Internet traffic. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect