Fusions horizontales sur le marché de l'Internet

Abstract

This paper focuses on the vertical relationship between Internet Backbone Providers (IBPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and the difficulties created in that relationship by the IBPs’ strong market power. We propose a two-stage sequential game to analyze competition between horizontally differentiated ISPs in the service market and IBP Cournot competition in the backbone market. When the backbone market is unregulated, we find that consolidation among ISPs may reduce access charges by leveraging positive externalities in installed bases.