Abstract

In the European Union significant asymmetries prevail among member states in the most diverse areas. The telecom sector is no exception to this, with some members being much more advanced than others. Within the member states asymmetries also occur. And if we extrapolate this to a broader audience, for example the OECD, the European Union has been far away from some other members in what concerns asymmetries within own countries, with Japan and South Korea being the most evident. In 2016 the European Commission proposed a new regulatory framework for the telecom sector which was adopted in late 2018 by the European Parliament and must be transposed to national laws by member-states by late 2020. As we move towards the digital revolution, the so-called industry 4.0, the new EU regulatory framework has the aim of removing most of these asymmetries, by guaranteeing that most citizens will have access to a very fast Internet connection regardless of where they live. This regulatory framework provides some guidance and goals and funding objectives, but for operators and governments this is just not sufficient per se. Against this background, the overall research issue of this thesis is a methodological approach to how to determine the best access technology from a multi-criteria and multi-stakeholder perspective. In particular, to provide coverage in a certain region who lacks service a priori (therefore unprofitable by nature), problematics to be addressed include: i) what are exactly the new regulatory framework guidelines; ii) which strategic operational model to use; iii) what is the most appropriate technology to achieve these objectives; iv) how to handle the pricing incognita and all the financial component; v) how risky it is to make these objectives a reality.

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