The Economics of Next Generation Access Networks and Regulatory Governance: Towards Geographic Patterns of Regulation

This paper examines the mix of technical, regulatory, and business strategy issues that arise in implementing next generation broadband platforms in Europe. Our review of some European studies on NGAN in Europe and our specific focus on the Italian situation, in particular on the competitive situation in Milano, shows the relevant flaw of continuing to advocate national patterns of regulation. In fact, the deployment of NGAN calls for a radical shift of regulation on a geographic level. The recognition that a NGAN business case does exist for OLO in a number of local areas, mainly metropolitan ones, has relevant regulatory implications.In the first place, since the conditions of competition differ significantly among local areas, regulation should promote both incumbents' and OLO's investments in NGAN by limiting ex ante interventions to those enduring economic bottlenecks found at a specific geographic markets level. In the second place, market definition is the most important step in the market analysis procedure to help decide whether to regulate a given service provided over a NGAN or not. We have proposed a taxonomy of local areas that may be adopted in a country like Italy for a correct geographic definition of markets 4 and 5 and, as a consequence, for the imposition of appropriate remedies.Next Generation Networks, geographic markets, geographic remedies, infrastructure sharing, market definition

The Economics of Next Generation Access Networks and Regulatory Governance: Towards Geographic Patterns of Regulation

This paper examines the mix of technical, regulatory, and business strategy issues that arise in implementing next generation broadband platforms in Europe. Our review of some European studies on NGAN in Europe and our specific focus on the Italian situation, in particular on the competitive situation in Milano, shows the relevant flaw of continuing to advocate national patterns of regulation. In fact, the deployment of NGAN calls for a radical shift of regulation on a geographic level. The recognition that a NGAN business case does exist for OLO in a number of local areas, mainly metropolitan ones, has relevant regulatory implications.In the first place, since the conditions of competition differ significantly among local areas, regulation should promote both incumbents' and OLO's investments in NGAN by limiting ex ante interventions to those enduring economic bottlenecks found at a specific geographic markets level. In the second place, market definition is the most important step in the market analysis procedure to help decide whether to regulate a given service provided over a NGAN or not. We have proposed a taxonomy of local areas that may be adopted in a country like Italy for a correct geographic definition of markets 4 and 5 and, as a consequence, for the imposition of appropriate remedies.Next Generation Networks, geographic markets, geographic remedies, infrastructure sharing, market definition.

The Economics of Next Generation Access Networks and Regulatory Governance: Towards Geographic Patterns of Regulation

This paper examines the mix of technical, regulatory, and business strategy issues that arise in implementing next generation broadband platforms in Europe. Our review of some European studies on NGAN in Europe and our specific focus on the Italian situation, in particular on the competitive situation in Milano, shows the relevant flaw of continuing to advocate national patterns of regulation. In fact, the deployment of NGAN calls for a radical shift of regulation on a geographic level. The recognition that a NGAN business case does exist for OLO in a number of local areas, mainly metropolitan ones, has relevant regulatory implications.In the first place, since the conditions of competition differ significantly among local areas, regulation should promote both incumbents' and OLO's investments in NGAN by limiting ex ante interventions to those enduring economic bottlenecks found at a specific geographic markets level. In the second place, market definition is the most important step in the market analysis procedure to help decide whether to regulate a given service provided over a NGAN or not. We have proposed a taxonomy of local areas that may be adopted in a country like Italy for a correct geographic definition of markets 4 and 5 and, as a consequence, for the imposition of appropriate remedies

The Economics of Next Generation Access Networks and Regulatory Governance: Towards Geographic Patterns of Regulation

This paper examines the mix of technical, regulatory, and business strategy issues that arise in implementing next generation broadband platforms in Europe. Our review of some European studies on NGAN in Europe and our specific focus on the Italian situation, in particular on the competitive situation in Milano, shows the relevant flaw of continuing to advocate national patterns of regulation. In fact, the deployment of NGAN calls for a radical shift of regulation on a geographic level. The recognition that a NGAN business case does exist for OLO in a number of local areas, mainly metropolitan ones, has relevant regulatory implications.In the first place, since the conditions of competition differ significantly among local areas, regulation should promote both incumbents' and OLO's investments in NGAN by limiting ex ante interventions to those enduring economic bottlenecks found at a specific geographic markets level. In the second place, market definition is the most important step in the market analysis procedure to help decide whether to regulate a given service provided over a NGAN or not. We have proposed a taxonomy of local areas that may be adopted in a country like Italy for a correct geographic definition of markets 4 and 5 and, as a consequence, for the imposition of appropriate remedies

Decidual endovascular trophoblast invasion in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: an experimental case-control study.

CONTEXT: Previous experimental and clinical data suggest impaired decidual trophoblast invasion in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that decidual endovascular trophoblast invasion in pregnant patients with PCOS is impaired and to clarify the potential mechanisms involved. DESIGN: This was an experimental case-control study. SETTING: The study was conducted at the academic Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Unit of Pathology (Italy). PATIENTS: Forty-five pregnant subjects screened from a wide population of women waiting for legal pregnancy termination were included in the final analysis. Specifically, 15 pregnant patients with PCOS were enrolled as cases and another 30 age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy pregnant women without any feature of PCOS were enrolled as the controls. INTERVENTION: Interventions included the collection of trophoblastic and decidual tissue at the 12th week of gestation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical, ultrasonographic, and biochemical data as well as the histological analysis of decidual endovascular trophoblast invasion. RESULTS: The rate of implantation site vessels with endovascular trophoblast invasion (ratio between total number of implantation site vessels and total number of vessels with endovascular trophoblast invasion) and the extent of endovascular trophoblast invasion (proportion between immunoreactive areas to cytokeratin 7 and to CD34) were significantly lower in patients with PCOS compared with healthy non-PCOS controls. Endovascular trophoblast invasion data were significantly and indirectly related to the markers of insulin resistance and testosterone concentrations in PCOS patients. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant patients with PCOS patients have impaired decidual trophoblast invasion. Further studies are needed to evaluate the exact mechanisms through which insulin resistance and hyperandrogenemia exert this effect