Diffusione della banda larga: fattori di sviluppo e regolazione

Broadband communications is a key factor for the development of the information society. In the last years, there has been a significant increase in the broadband subscriptions in particular with regard to the subscriptions to the mobile broadband, which have shown an increase much higher than the fixed one. In this work, factors that influence the diffusion of fixed and mobile broadband have been analyzed using a panel data of the 27 members of the European Union. Estimations demonstrate that GDP percapite is a significant factor which influence positively fixed broadband diffusion. Moreover, the percentage of DSL line on the total of subscription to fixed broadband, which can be considered as a proxy for platform competition, has a negative and significant impact. On the other hand, as many empirical works have already found, local loop unbundling policy, education, and price are not significant factors of fixed broadband diffusion. With regard to mobile broadband services, results of this thesis demonstrate that mobile voice penetration, coverage with 3G technology, level of education and GDP per capita have a positive and significant impact of the mobile broadband diffusion, while the price of the fixed broadband is not significant. This last result suggest that mobile broadband service is not a substitute to fixed broadband service and therefore the two services belong to two different markets. [edited by Author]