Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper discusses the scope for competition in the telecommunications industry, taking into account the features of natural monopoly, network externalities, and customer inertia. Recent policy towards competition in the industry in the UK is surveyed, with an emphasis on access pricing and interconnection. Finally, recent theoretical developments in the economics of access pricing and interconnection are discussed and shown to lend some support for aspects of current policy in the UK. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.