The main aims of this work are to study the experience of countries that have implanted a model for competition between platforms, understand the similarities between these countries' experiences and draw conclusions that may be applied to other regions. For the study, four countries in which the model for competition between platforms has been implanted have been chosen (one from each continent): USA, Holland, South Korea and Chile.
The study of countries with platform competition shows first of all that the process for adopting this model was not predetermined, but rather resulted from the dialectics between regulatory pragmatism and a proactive response from industry players. Secondly, the cases under study show that, regardless of the starting point, these countries are converging towards a single inter-platform competition model. This is due to the fact that this model represents a more efficient industrial organisation for telecommunications. The fact that, on the basis of different industrial contexts and in the absence of contagion or the 'export' of a certain regulatory framework, there is a convergence towards a similar model of competition indicates that the market dynamics and economic structure of the industry play a determinant role in the migration. Thirdly, beyond the 'US and Dutch exceptions', this model is gaining in prominence all around the world. For example, in addition to cases not studied here, such as Hong Kong and Canada, it is to be expected that, in accordance with this analysis, countries as different as Portugal, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico will implement regulatory models entailing inter-platform competition that simply formalise pre-existing competitive dynamics. Finally, these models will not be adopted by sacrificing the consumer interest in favour of a consolidated industry, but rather end users will benefit from static and dynamic efficiencies provided by healthy competition systems.
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