congestion in communications Presentation to the 2013 ACCC - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Comments on “Managing congestion in communications” Presentation to the 2013 ACCC regulatory conference Stephen P. King Monash University

Overview  Congestion is hard to solve in many networks (not just communications)  Communications networks raise ‘particular issues’  Problems with consumer congestion charging  Thinking outside the box 2

Congestion problem … 3

Simple solution? 4

Simple solution? Consumer resistance: Paying for what was free; L ack of ‘trust’ in pricing; Equity (‘road’ neutrality?) 5

Now add in: Multiple related networks in a vertical chain ‘Contagion’ of congestion Two-directional flows Rapid growth in traffic volumes 6

Electricity solution Require network over build. 7

Suppose we could get over customer resistance and price congestion. Would this solve the problem? 8

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Who sets capacity? 11

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Do content providers pay? Can complementary technologies allow adequate ‘work arounds ’ (but still issue of capacity of regulated network)? 13

Takeaways  We know how to price congestion in theory  In practice we have no clue 14