Communications, Media, and Internet

Regulation and Public Policy

NERA is global leader in providing advice on the specialized regulatory and public policy issues related to the telecommunications, media, and postal industries. Our experts combine first-hand experience with regulation in many countries with a deep understanding of the critical importance of economic theory and its practical application to regulatory policy. We help our clients understand the key regulatory issues and the implications for their businesses, devise an appropriate regulatory strategy, and influence the decision-making process. Our work includes advice, reports, white papers, and expert testimonies regarding regulatory challenges, options, and disputes.

We have substantial experience in regulatory design of wholesale and retail markets, assessing the impact of regulatory decisions on market outcomes, and resolving complex regulatory challenges, often brought on by the convergence of the telecommunications and media sectors. Our work on behalf of clients has included matters related to:

• Accounting and structural separation
• Broadband regulation and policy
• Collusion claims
• Competitive entry through additional licensing
• Competitive impacts of market consolidation
• Cost modeling (fixed, mobile, NGN, NBN)
• Creation of effective wholesale markets
• Dark fiber regulation
• Demand forecasting through market research, econometric analysis, and benchmarking
• Efficiency evaluations of wholesale markets
• Infrastructure and facilities sharing
• Intercarrier compensation
• Interconnection rates
• International benchmarking of regulated services
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Mobile and local number portability
• Mobile termination rates
• Mobile virtual network operators
• Narrowband universal access and service reform
• National and international mobile roaming
• Net neutrality
• Network unbundling
• Next generation networks
• Relevant market definitions
• Regulatory design options (incentive, rate of return, pricing flexibility, forbearance)
• Structure (pole, ducts) sharing

NERA's clients range from the world's largest telecommunications and media companies to small rural providers to governments and regulators. Our experience is global, including developed and emerging economies around the world.