Providing incentives for private investment in municipal broadband networks: Evidence from the Netherlands

The paper examines the incentives provided by public–private partnerships (PPPs) to stimulate private market parties to participate in municipal fibre networks in the Netherlands. Although there has been a growing interest of Dutch municipalities in fibre technologies since the beginning of the 2000s, PPP models to implement these technologies developed rather slowly in response to changes in public policy, the legislative environment and experiences gained in early projects. In 2005, the viability of a cooperative PPP model called “Ons Net” Nuenen was tested in an experimental setting for the first time using government subsidies. In undertaking a techno-economic analysis of the PPP “Ons Net” in Nuenen, the paper examines its objectives, boundaries and viability. It shows that the experience of this PPP based on ubiquity, open fibre access and demand aggregation provided important incentives for companies to invest in (other) municipal fibre networks in the Netherlands. The paper concludes furthermore that mandating of open access will become a key task for (local) governments to foster competitive entry and to facilitate innovation in municipal fibre networks.     

Using the economics of platforms to understand the broadband-based market formation in the New Zealand Ultra-Fast Broadband Network

The government of New Zealand is currently building a nation-wide fibre-optics network, a project known as the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative. The UFB network will cover 75 percent of New Zealanders over 10 years and will cost NZD $1.5 billion to the New Zealand government. The technical and economic characteristics of the new network will have a deep impact on the current landscape of the telecommunications markets. Institutional arrangements are in place for the development of the New Zealand's UFB: a government-owned agency, Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH); private investors who jointly with CFH own the Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) which will operate the UFB; and Retail Service Providers (RSP) that will provide end-user services by purchasing wholesale services to the LFCs. Relying on a normative economics approach that uses recent advances in the theory of platform-based markets with cross-network effects – also known as theory of two-sided platforms – the paper proposes a novel view of the way markets over the UFB will unfold. On one hand, the theory is used to explain the rationale behind regulatory decisions already made and their effect on the development of UFB-based markets for contents and services. Such analysis is followed, on the other hand, by the introduction of a simple taxonomy for the RSPs which provides the framework to argue about the most likely scenarios for service deployment and competition to develop over the UFB. The analytical framework reveals that the UFB ecosystem will be fraught with cross-network externalities which are the basis for regulatory decisions already adopted and the source of particular forms of strategic behavior adopted by the UFB-based market innovators.     

Long term risk sharing contracts as an approach to establish public–private partnerships for investment into next generation access networks

This paper develops an investment/pricing model for the deployment of basic broadband networks which, along with other applications, is applicable to public–private partnership projects. In particular, a new investment model is suggested to be used for finance deployment over a longer term by enabling both private and public investors to participate in the roll-out of next generation access (NGA) infrastructure. This so-called “long-term risk sharing concept” has several notable benefits compared with the traditional regulatory approach. Above all, the model enables both private operators and public authorities to share the risk of investing in NGA infrastructure. Thus the model offers a way for public authorities to achieve a timely and countrywide roll-out of NGA networks, including in areas where NGA investment would otherwise not occur.     

Public and private intervention for next-generation access deployment: Possibilities for three European countries

How next-generation access (NGA) deployment can be encouraged is a challenge that many countries are facing, and one that has been widely and actively discussed around the globe. This discussion has highlighted a dilemma that ultimately shapes investment—how to encourage the widespread deployment of NGA while enabling operators to achieve reasonable returns. This paper focuses on the tensions that arise as a consequence of this investment challenge in three countries – the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) – and uses the analysis of extensive data collection with k7ey actors to argue the case for the injection of public or private incentives. The paper finds that markets with competitive infrastructure will not benefit from public investment while markets with geographical constraints are in need of public support. The paper also explains that regulatory intervention is necessary in the early stage of NGA roll-out, even in currently competitive markets. In all the discussions it becomes evident that, among the three cases, the UK is most in need of public intervention.     

Roles for developing public–private partnerships in centralized public procurement

This study examines the roles actors play to develop public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the context of centralized public procurement and how these roles change during the procurement process. The roles are explored by applying role theory and the typologies of managerial and intermediary roles and by utilizing a triadic approach to distinguish these roles in raw food and home nursing procurement settings. The findings of this study increase the understanding of PPPs by identifying the roles for developing PPP relationships and how these roles are played to reinforce this development in centralized public procurement. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the research on relationship dynamics by showing how actors' roles and the performance of those change and are influenced by the public procurement context and the roles the other actors undertake during the centralized public procurement process. The study yields insights for managers of public and private organizations seeking to develop stronger PPPs and improve public procurement.     

Capital subsidies,profit maximization,and acquisitions by partially privatized telecommunications carriers

A recent phenomenon in competition policy is the acquisition of a private firm by an enterprise that is either wholly owned by government or in the midst of privatization. Such an acquisition poses the question of how public ownership may alter the incentives of a firm to engage in anticompetitive conduct. It also prompts one to examine the process by which such altered incentives revert, as the level of government ownership declines, to the same incentives that face purely private firms. Using Deutsche Telekom's acquisition of VoiceStream Wireless as a case study, this article presents the economic questions relevant to evaluating the competitive consequences of acquisitions by partially privatized firms. It predicts gains or losses to various constituencies of producer groups. It then analyzes bond ratings and weighted-average costs of capital to determine whether such data are consistent with the hypothesis, advanced by parties opposed to such foreign investment, that partially privatized acquirers benefited from the government subsidization of their credit.     

公共住房项目PPP模式研究

公共住房建设是政府实现住房领域公平目标的重要手段,但由于其社会福利属性,面临着资金来源不足、后续发展乏力的困境。文章将普遍应用于国内外基础设施领域的PPP模式引入公共住房建设领域,对PPP模式的中国公共住房项目进行内部、外部条件分析,论证研究的可行性;在此基础上结合经济适用房与廉租房的不同特点探索具体操作形式;对保障高效合作的运行机制进行探讨,以推进城镇公共住房建设发展。     

国际基础设施建设PPP项目关键绩效指标研究

PPP项目以提高公共产品供给的效率和效能为目标,但在实际操作中却缺乏有效而完善的监控指标,使得公共部门在项目监管中缺少导向和绩效评价的基础与依据,造成了PPP项目的绩效评价缺位和产出不能达到预期目标,制约了PPP模式的发展。以VFM为导向,采用关键绩效指标(Key Performance In dicators,KPI)方法,结合大量文献,构建PPP项目的KPI概念模型。以此作为PPP项目潜在的KPI识别平台,48个PPP项目绩效指标被识别出来。通过全球范围内的问卷调查评判了这些指标的相对重要性,调查结果表明全部指标均是重要的(>3.000),其中31个指标是更加重要的绩效指标(>3.500)。问卷调查的结果成为进一步筛选最关键的绩效指标的基础,为公共部门监控PPP项目绩效和产出提供了坚实的理论基础,也为私人部门特别是我国进入国际PPP市场的企业提高自身绩效提供可供参考的重要依据。     

A CDS approach to induce facilities-based competition over NGA networks

The current regulatory framework in the European NGA market provides the basic principles for the gradual migration from service-based competition over the legacy copper access networks to facilities-based competition over fiber-based Next Generation Access (NGA) networks. This paper initially reviews the related literature and shows that: (i) an unbundling policy that boosts entry by alternative operators promotes service-based competition but provides operators with disincentives to invest in network upgrade; (ii) there is no consensus about the optimal regulatory policy that promotes competition and encourages investments in NGA networks; and (iii) the reviewed research articles are not consistent with the current regulatory framework in the European NGA market in terms of both the evolution of the regulatory goals over time and the recommended regulatory settings. This paper aims to propose a novel approach in order to effectively meet the current regulatory goals using the recommended settings. It is shown that the proposed approach, which is based on the basic principles governing a Credit Default Swap (CDS), provides an effective migration path towards facilities-based competition over NGA networks.     

Who does private equity buy? Evidence on the role of private equity from buyouts of divested businesses

Research Summary: We examine the role of nonventure private equity firms in the market for divested businesses, comparing targets bought by such firms to those bought by corporate acquirers. We argue that a combination of vigilant monitoring, high‐powered incentives, patient capital, and business independence makes private equity firms uniquely suited to correcting underinvestment problems in public corporations, and that they will therefore systematically target divested businesses that are outside their parents’ core area, whose rivals invest more in long‐term strategic assets than their parents, and whose parents have weak managerial incentives both overall and at the divisional level. Results from a sample of 1,711 divestments confirm these predictions. Our study contributes to our understanding of private equity ownership, highlighting its advantage as an alternate governance form. Managerial Summary: Private equity firms are often portrayed as destroyers of corporate value, raiding established companies in pursuit of short‐term gain. In contrast, we argue that private equity investors help to revitalize businesses by enabling investments in long‐term strategic resources and capabilities that they are better able to evaluate, monitor, and support than public market investors. Consistent with these arguments, we find that when acquiring businesses divested by public corporations, private equity firms are more likely to buy units outside the parent's core area, those whose peers invest more in R&D than their parents, and those whose parents have weak managerial incentives, especially at the divisional level. Thus, private equity firms systematically target those businesses that may fail to realize their full potential under public ownership.     

Investments in next generation access infrastructures under regulatory uncertainty

This article studies the impact of regulatory uncertainty on an incumbent’s incentives to undertake the socially optimal investments in NGA networks. Thus, a regulatory non-commitment setting in which the regulator sets the access price after the deployment of the NGA network is used. In particular, it is assumed that the regulator sets the access price at the marginal cost of providing the access with some probability and gives an access markup, which equals the average cost of the investments, with the complementary probability. It is found that when the slope of the marginal investment cost function is not particularly steep in relation to the impact of investments on demand, the incumbent underinvests compared to the socially optimal investment level. On the contrary, in a more realistic case when the impact of investments on demand is low in relation to the slope of the marginal investment cost function, the incumbent may overinvest or underinvest depending on the probability of incorporating an access markup into the access price.     

PPP合同风险识别和分配

公私合作（PPP）模式是国际上运用于基础设施建设的最新模式,通过公私合作的形式,越来越多的私营部门开始投资、建设、管理甚至拥有基础设施。文章通过分析PPP项目成功的关键因素,识别PPP合同可能存在的风险因素,并提出合同风险的分配方法。     

我国城市水务供给行业公私合作体制探索——基于重庆水务集团公私合作案例分析

公私合作(PPP public-private-partnership)模式是一种有效的公共产品或服务的供给方式。我国水务市场正逐步允许民间资本参与投资和经营,由于其自然垄断性以及我国传统的公有制要求,水务市场主要由国有企业参与项目融资建设。文章通过案例分析的研究方法,讨论政府和重庆水务集团公私合作关系、运作模式和特点,分析了该模式存在的困惑及障碍。针对问题提出了明晰政府定位、建设公私合作信息公开机制、合作竞争机制、构建合作结构等四方面的体制改革途径,从而实现新型的水务提供方式、让公众享受最好的供水服务和提升水务产品公私合作效率。     

Public-Private Partnerships and Prices: Evidence from Water Distribution in France

We use an original database of 5000 French local public authorities to explore the impact of organizational choice and performance as measured by consumer prices. In quantifying the impact of the choice of public-private partnerships (PPPs) on performance, we consider the related issue of the determinants of organizational choice. We estimate a switching regressions model to account for the endogeneity of organizational choice, and find that in our sample, (i) the choice by local public authorities to engage in a PPP is not random, and (ii) conditional on the choice of a PPP, consumer prices are significantly higher on average.     

The involvement of utilities in the development of broadband infrastructure: A comparison of EU case studies

Energy companies and other utility providers have been often involved in the provision of telecommunications services. Nevertheless, their contribution to broadband development has varied significantly over time. In the late 1990s, both local and national utilities in the European Union (EU) engaged in the provision of broadband networks, but only few of them managed to establish themselves as major broadband providers. More recently, new projects involving national utilities have been announced in several EU countries, opening new scenarios for utilities’ contribution to Next Generation Access (NGA) development. This paper identifies and explores the factors affecting the entry and the success of utilities in the EU broadband market, through the comparison of four case studies from four EU countries (Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The evolution of utility involvement in the EU broadband markets is assessed against the interaction of market, technology and policy factors, focusing on the impact of policy and regulatory measures. As a result, this paper provides fruitful insights into the relevance and effectiveness of public interventions in broadband markets. Across the four case studies, public support and public ownership emerged as the main drivers for the involvement of utilities in EU broadband markets, with regulatory measures and economies of scope exerting a limited and decreasing influence. However, the contribution of utilities has varied significantly across the cases studied, reflecting the different approaches taken at national and local level to support broadband development, in spite of the common regulatory framework.     

Dynamics of the transition process towards partnership thinking in centralized public procurement

This research paper seeks to increase the knowledge of the transition process from transactional arm's length tendering towards partnership thinking in centralized public procurement. In centralized public procurement, the professional public purchaser forms a triadic partnership relationship with the public unit managing the procurement implementation and the private organization. A triadic partnership relationship in a home nursing procurement setting is investigated to further the understanding of the relationship dynamics related to the transitioning of public and private actors towards partnership thinking. The research shows how transactional procurement logic hinders the transition to partnering by establishing challenges for initiating and nurturing public–private partnerships (PPPs) and how partnership thinking changes this procurement logic. It illustrates the transactional procurement logic of single actor and the logic underlying the relationship of two actors to engender and intensify the problems of triad in the centralized public procurement process and vice versa; that is, a shared understanding from jointly agreed procurement goals between two actors is identified as promoting triadic partnering. Managerial implications are given for those public and private organizations engaging in PPPs and seeking to understand the ways of managing them in the context of centralized public procurement, particularly during the transition towards partnership thinking.     

Factors determining municipal broadband strategies across Europe

Recognizing that high-speed broadband connectivity emerges as a key element for growth, city authorities engage in fiber access deployments to empower their local communities in the digital economy. Currently, a growing number of municipal fiber projects are underway or planned while the international community and the telecommunications industry are yet undecided about the role and type of municipal intervention. This paper takes a holistic view of municipal broadband in Europe, aiming to understand the factors that determine municipal strategies in fixed Next-Generation Access (NGA) networks and the implications of municipal broadband to regulation and markets. The data suggests that the determining factors are (a) the engagement of public utilities; (b) the involvement of the private sector in joint infrastructure projects; (c) the local demand for retail and wholesale services; and (d) the institutional and regulatory framework at the European and national scale. The findings of the study indicate that (a) municipal initiatives are highly dependent on national factors, thus the resulting interventions fare strong resemblance within a single country, while they can be substantially different across national contexts; (b) current EU provisions for public involvement in broadband development stimulate municipal plans for large scale arrangements; and (c) national regulatory frameworks, that primarily address vertical integrated incumbents and nationwide markets, may need adjustments to handle emerging access monopolies of regional and city broadband infrastructures.     

PPP模式在成都市保障性住房中的应用

为了从根本上解决成都市中低收入居民的居住问题,成都市政府近年来采取了多种措施试图对商品房地产市场进行有效调控,缓解政府部门公益性建设项目的融资压力,实现居者有其屋的目的。PPP(Public-Private-Partnership)模式是近年来广泛应用于基础设施建设融资领域的一种新型融资模式,本文对政府部门和私营企业双方在成都市保障性住房建设中应用PPP模式的可行性及政府部门与私营企业合作融资建设的可行方式进行了分析,提出了应用中可能存在的问题并给出了相应建议,结果认为将PPP模式应用于保障性住房融资可以达到公与私双赢,且有助于完善保障性住房制度。     

Take your partners: Public private interplay in Australian and New Zealand plans for next generation broadband

Within a few days of each other in early 2009, the national governments of Australia and New Zealand announced separate plans to invest heavily in advanced broadband networks. Taxpayers in each country will contribute at least half the estimated cost of fibre-to-the-premises networks reaching the overwhelming majority of households and businesses within 8–10 years. These complex and controversial forms of ‘public private interplay’ demonstrate three trends: a shift away from the liberalization and privatization policy consensus of the last two decades; shared convictions about the anticipated size of fast broadband’s economic and social benefits, and about the need for wholesale-only fixed line network operation to maximize those benefits; and the unlikely impact of the global financial and economic crisis in stimulating investment in particular infrastructures seen as critical to the national economies that emerge from it. This article discusses industry structures and regulation in Australia and New Zealand, their long history of public investment in telecommunications and the recent popularity of public private partnerships (PPPs) with Australian state governments. It outlines the ambitious broadband plans and surveys their prospects. Like so many other policy actions following the global economic crisis, these are distinctively national responses to internationally shared challenges.     

Public private partnerships as a tool for stimulating investments in broadband

The paper is concerned with PPP in the telecommunications area and more specifically with the combination of public and private investments in upgrading broadband infrastructures. Following the liberalization of the telecommunications area, investments were primarily left to the private sector – though public investments have continued to take place in specific areas such as research and education networks and rural and otherwise underserved areas. Lately, however, governments have upgraded their public investment plans in broadband infrastructures. The question is whether we are witnessing a simple quantitative change or whether this quantitative change includes a qualitative evolvement in the view on the role of the public sector in expanding broadband infrastructures. At the present time, the most likely answer is that increasing public investments in broadband infrastructures signal a combination of concerns raised by the economic crisis and the growing awareness of the social and economic importance of efficient broadband infrastructures.