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The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the policy tools to complement public involvement and public‐private collaboration in the deployment of next generation electronic communications infrastructures.

The special issue, of which this paper is a part, examines a number of policy tools that support public involvement and enhance public‐private partnering in next generation infrastructures, tools that are generally overlooked. The papers explore the main domains where these complementary actions might take place. They encompass policies directed to the demand and supply sides of the market, information society and industrial innovation policies, additional measures that can be taken by local and regional public administrations and new policy tools to foster user empowerment.

From the authors' perspective, public involvement and public‐private partnering for the deployment of next generation infrastructures in telecommunications will require an integrated policy approach. The appropriate policy mix includes instruments of innovation, information society development and new user empowerment.

This paper introduces a timely contribution to the debate on public support of next generation infrastructures in electronic communications.

The goal of the article is twofold: to determine the effectiveness of monetary incentives for disclosing personal information and to confirm the existence of a “bite the bullet” effect whereby people more easily accept providing personal data if they become aware of the requirement when the purchasing decision is almost taken.

An experiment in which participants made a real purchase on the AliExpress marketplace was carried out. They were asked to login either via the Facebook button or by creating a username and password. A different reimbursement of the price paid for their purchase was offered in each case. This information was presented either at the beginning of the purchasing process or just before completing the purchase order.

The monetary incentive proved to work well. The “bite the bullet” effect could not be assessed because many participants willingly gave their data to the company even if they had decided not to buy anything.

From a managerial perspective, this is good news. This is a calamity from a policy perspective. More experiments carried out in real settings are needed as a first step for reconsidering public action.

While people continue to publicly declare that they have privacy concerns, their behavior could not be further removed from such concerns.

Experiment in a completely real setting, in which participants made a purchase using their own credit card.

This article aims to review the technological and socio‐economic conditions which will influence the development of the mobile search market.

An expert workshop with academics, industry representatives and market analysts was organised to discuss and analyse the results of an online survey of techno‐economic and socio‐economic aspects concerning the evolution of mobile search.

Despite clear positive signs, forecasted great expectations around mobile search are not yet supported by economic market evidence. Substantial development work for creating new applications ripe for the mass market is still needed, although there seems to be no fundamental technological barrier to that. Location‐based services, augmented reality, real‐time information search, and social network search and recommendations, have been identified as some of the key trends that may shape the future of mobile search. User demand for innovative mobile search‐based applications is largely taken for granted, but experts lack a clear view on suitable business models that would allow for sustainable economic development.

Innovating is not only inventing. Understanding what drives customers' willingness to use – and to pay for – a product or service is essential in order to design appropriate services and introduce these innovations to the market. There is a growing literature on mobile search‐related technology, but the market context is largely unexplored.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the direct involvement of public administrations in the supply side of electronic communications markets based on the Spanish experience. It is an example of the difficult balance in the public private interplay in next generation electronic communications networks.

Starting from a general overview of the conditions for public intervention in the development of infrastructures established by the electronic communications regulatory framework, this paper analyses the case of Spain as an illustrative example taking into consideration some specific initiatives to illustrate the different possible mechanisms of intervention on the supply side.

It is the opinion of the authors that a framework of public‐private collaboration in the field of electronic communications infrastructure development is consistent with the industry liberalisation model chosen one decade ago in Spain and it could be particularly adequate in an environment of financial hardship such as the present one, which leads to a greater demand for efficiency in the use of public and private resources. However, the conditions and limitations for public involvement should be persistently respected. In addition, there are novel policy instruments on the supply side that could help the deployment of next generation networks without the burden of substituting private initiative.

The paper presents a systematic analysis of policy instruments for direct intervention of public administrations in the supply side of electronic communications market, including the specific situation of Spain. It is also a contribution to the debate on the role of public administrations in developing electronic communications infrastructures.

This paper aims to assess the role that different wireless solutions could have in the universalisation of access to telecommunication services in emerging countries.

The paper presents a techno‐economic model aimed at estimating the cost of deploying and maintaining a wireless network (a 3G network and a CDMA 450 network) capable of providing broadband access. The calculations have been carried out for Mexico, since its socio‐demographic disparities represent well the general scenarios of developing economies.

Wireless technologies are the safest commitment to move forward to universal access in developing countries. The results of this study suggest that provision of broadband in moderately populated zones (suburban and semirural areas) through the deployment of a wireless network could be profitable for those operators willing to invest. Alternatively, these technologies would also be the most efficient option for those governments, which decide to finance the deployment of infrastructures in those regions, which at least in the short term, will not be served by the market.

The paper stimulates the discussion about the role wireless solutions could have in achieving service universalisation in emerging countries. The results may be useful, especially for policy makers, when designing strategies to extend a wireless broadband network access.

This paper seeks to set out a framework for assessing whether and how to intervene in the standardisation of new technologies, based on the experience of Ofcom, the UK converged communications regulator.

As part of its duties to promote the interests of consumers and citizens, Ofcom needed to decide whether or not to intervene in the standardisation of wholesale access to superfast broadband, in the context of the roll out of the next generation of telecommunications access networks.

Ofcom found that the case for intervention was finely balanced between, on the one hand, the risk to innovation and, on the other, the consumer welfare generated by the right combination of standardisation and network effects. Ofcom identified four basic models of intervention: take no formal action; require that infrastructure providers use open standards, without specifying which standards should be used; mandate a particular standard to be used; and specify the standard to be used. Ofcom developed a policy framework that assesses interventions in terms of prospects for innovation and network effects. This led it to choose an approach that initially involves no formal action. Instead, Ofcom facilitates industry leadership of standardisation whilst monitoring the emerging competitive environment and signalling both its desired outcomes and its determination to take action if competition does not develop.

It is too early to say whether this approach will ultimately prove successful, however the framework allows for progressive strengthening of intervention if competition is not forthcoming.

The paper delivers value in conceptualising and clarifying the overall approach to standardisation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how innovation has become more important in information society policy and what the implications are for policy design, policy coordination and policy evaluation.

Against the background of European information society policy, a case study is done on the policy mix for ICT innovation in The Netherlands. A highly structured qualitative methodology is developed to analyse the relevant policy instruments in information society policy and innovation policy. The methodology includes a typology for rationale, policy instruments and element of the innovation process.

To a large extent, information society policy and innovation policy are complementary. There is some overlap between policy instruments. The rationale and objectives can be more explicit. The policy mix had a positive impact on information communication technology (ICT) knowledge, broadband and e‐government.

The paper presents the relevance, methods and results of a detailed study on the intersection of two policy fields: information society policy and innovation policy.

The paper attempts to reflect on user empowerment enabled by three contemporary approaches, namely living labs, open innovation and social computing, as innovation instruments for innovating products and services based on next generation networks (NGNs).

The paper takes the form of a literature review, with limited environmental scanning of web sources, industry news, etc.

User‐centric services can be a catalyst for promoting future service ecosystems over NGN. Open strategies may prove to be profitable avenues for incumbents who may consider the extension of the market from access services into value added services. The living lab perspective, used as an approach of developing NGNs, introduces the opportunity to open new markets in new regions where new products and services can be tested and deployed. Living labs can also be used to go beyond the current “launch‐and‐learn” approach in online social communities to active end‐user participation in the online communities' development process. NGNs may be particularly useful for social computing, by offering incentives to create novel services that are fully created, developed and deployed by users.

This paper argues that user‐led innovation could be a significant paradigm shift for innovating products and services, particularly in the specific context of NGNs. It argues that this focus is lacking today, with most of the attention on specific NGN technology and infrastructure issues.

The deployment of next generation communications (NGC) progresses unevenly, frequently suffering from insufficient interoperability. Interoperability remains a fundamental driver for NGC diffusion, but existing theories remain vague on how to ensure its provision. Since interoperability features increasing returns and public good regimes, its market provision may be hampered. At the same time, public efforts might be ineffective when colliding with private operators' incentives. Sometimes, the policy instruments used might even distort technological diffusion and competition in a way incompatible with a market‐neutral approach. This paper aims to investigate these issues.

This paper first reviews the literature on the economics of standardisation, the provision of private and public goods and the regulation of NGC. Then, it illustrates the EU policy on interactive television. Finally, it presents a research case study, analysing the recent implementation of this policy in Italy.

Coherently with the hypothesis of the literature, the case study confirms that the public‐private interplay for interoperability is complex, and that the public and subsidised provision of an open standard might be captured by private interests.

The case study is representative of the dilemmas affecting future policy‐making in NGC. More case studies will corroborate the above findings, better clarifying the available options to ensure a virtuous public private interplay.

Policy should be carefully framed in a way to impose market‐neutral implementations. Further, open standards – although valuable – are not a panacea and can be useless when systemically tied to other proprietary intellectual property rights (IPRs).

This is a first case study in a new field of policy assessment. The evidence provided is valuable for scholars, practitioners and policy‐makers dealing with NGC.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce to the concepts related with universal service and the papers in the special issue about “Re‐thinking universal service in the digital era”.

This special issue aims to provide support to the policy process with regard to universal service in a digital context. The papers in the issue highlight developments that are shaking up the current universal service model. They consider universal service from a set of different dimensions, encompassing both demand and supply side considerations. Also a comparative outlook draws lessons from a representative set of existing regulatory models.

The paper finds that the foundations and concept of universal service are experiencing a profound transformation as we enter into a new phase of information society development. A new set of policy goals and tools is the main consequence of this change.

The paper presents a timely account of the universal service policy debate.