We re-consider the impact that regulation of call termination on mobile phones has had on mobile customers? bills. Using a large panel covering 27 countries, we find that the ?waterbed? phenomenon, initially observed until early 2006, becomes insignificant on average over the 10-year period, 2002-2011. We argue that this is related to the changing nature of the industry, whereby mobile-to-mobile traffic now plays a much bigger role compared to fixed-to-mobile calls in earlier periods. Over the same decade, we find no evidence that regulation caused a reduction in mobile operators? profits and investments.

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4 July 2014     Paper Number CEPDP1282

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This CEP discussion paper is published under the centre's Growth programme.