Wettbewerb auf dem britischen Mobilfunkmarkt (Nr. 209): WIK - Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH

Wettbewerb auf dem britischen Mobilfunkmarkt

Wolfgang Kiesewetter

Wettbewerb auf dem britischen Mobilfunkmarkt
Nr. 209 /November 2000

Summary

This study describes the development of competition in the British mobile telephone market. The main focus is on examining the development of the intensity of competition resulting from the regulatory approach chosen by the British regulatory authority OFTEL. The mobile market is characterised by an increasing intensity of competition, especially at the end customer level. This can be shown in particular after the market entry of One2One and Orange. Due to the auction of the 5 UMTS-licences in summer 2000 another increase in competition can be expected. In addition, OFTEL has imposed a mandatory obligation on Vodafone and BT Cellnet to provide indirect access to other companies. The goal of OFTEL’s policy is to increase competition to get the consumer the best value for their money and to give them the greatest variety of services.

The study describes the regulatory framework by looking at the following factors:

	licensing approach,
	licensing conditions, including of additional conditions for operators with market influence or significant market power,
	Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), Indirect Access Operators and number portability,
	price regulation,
	introduction of UMTS and national roaming.

The development of the mobile market is characterised by

	the development of market volumes and shares,
	the development of prices and tariff schemes,
	roll-out of infrastructure to increase the scope and quality of the networks.

Only German language version available.

WIK / WIK-C

WIK

Publishing date

2000