TY - JOUR
T1 - The price of broadband quality
T2 - tracking the changing valuation of service characteristics
AU - Lyons, Seán
AU - Coyne, Bryan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2017/8/18
Y1 - 2017/8/18
N2 - This paper investigates how retail broadband prices, choice and quality are changing over time. Using a data set containing daily observations of plans offered in Ireland from 2007 to 2013, this paper applies hedonic modelling techniques to observe the changing pricing of service characteristics. Although we find that average nominal prices remain static throughout our sample period, quality of service has risen dramatically over time, particularly with respect to download speed. Some characteristics of broadband plans exhibit broadly stable valuations over time, but the elasticity of price with respect to advertised download speed and the premium on bundled services declined for most types of broadband plans during the sample period. In addition, the retail price premium enjoyed by the incumbent operator fell significantly since 2007.
AB - This paper investigates how retail broadband prices, choice and quality are changing over time. Using a data set containing daily observations of plans offered in Ireland from 2007 to 2013, this paper applies hedonic modelling techniques to observe the changing pricing of service characteristics. Although we find that average nominal prices remain static throughout our sample period, quality of service has risen dramatically over time, particularly with respect to download speed. Some characteristics of broadband plans exhibit broadly stable valuations over time, but the elasticity of price with respect to advertised download speed and the premium on bundled services declined for most types of broadband plans during the sample period. In addition, the retail price premium enjoyed by the incumbent operator fell significantly since 2007.
KW - Broadband services
KW - Ireland
KW - hedonic model
KW - market analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84990226074&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10438599.2016.1237007
DO - 10.1080/10438599.2016.1237007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84990226074
SN - 1043-8599
VL - 26
SP - 516
EP - 532
JO - Economics of Innovation and New Technology
JF - Economics of Innovation and New Technology
IS - 6
ER -