Estimating Market Power in the Internet Backbone Using Band-X data
Authors:	E. Giovannetti C. A. Ristuccia
Published:	Cambridge Working Papers in Economics, 2003
URL:	http://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/0332.html http://econpapers.hhs.se/paper/camcamdae/0332.htm
Entry Date:	2004-06-30
Datasets:	Daily prices and quality metrics for transit contracts from Band-X (July 3 to November 5, 2002) Band-X is an Online Internet Transit trading place that provides daily prices for transit at different bandwidths and contract lengths (1 month, 3 months, etc.) from connection locations in London and New York. Quality metrics are provided and measured by Band-X, not those that may be in a service agreement. They include RTT, packet loss %, transfer rate, and hop count to specified destinations. Seller of a contract is identified only by a dummy (A, B, C, D, ...)
Experiments:	Panel data regression was done, showing the affect and statistical significance of different variables on the offered price.
Results:	Price variations are only marginally affected by qualitiative dimensions. Price variance is mostly explained by the companies' dummy with high coefficients and high statistical significance. Market power does exist in the internet connectivity market, even when the providers are supposedly anonymous. The customers may be able to determine the provider after purchasing a contract, or price may be used as a signal of other qualities that affect preference of provider such as size and reputation.