d to a lesser degree for the electricity sector. On the other hand, the role of prices remains limited in the water sector and only marginal in the land transport sector. In the telecom sector, competition is expected to foster the deployment of new technology and to drive cost and prices down to "near-zero" levels, creating thereby the conditions for the rapid expansion of telecoms in the developing world (Bohlin et al.). However, this will depend on how fast prices will converge towards costs, and notably on the evolution of the price of basic carriage, which in turn will depend on how such infrastructure will be regulated. Given the enormous capacity of optic fibres and the high cost of deploying them, economies of scale in basic carriage are likely to be very large indeed, resulting in a high degree of concentration. In this context it will be important for regulators to ensure that access to the infrastructure remains open and that access charges reflect costs. The price of electricity plays a key role also in adjusting supply and demand in the short term (e.g. role of peak-load pricing). Electricity prices moreover have an impact on fuel choice. For instance, the widespread introduction of time-of-day electricity pricing at wholesale level that fully reflects the higher cost of generating power at peak would improve the competitiveness of gas against coal. Electricity pricing is also a key factor for investment decisions. For instance, low transmission rates have contributed to insufficient levels of transmission investment in the United States as well as in INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 1. A CROSS-SECTORAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURES TO 2030 a number of European countries according to the US National Energy Policy Development Group (United States, 2001, p. 115). Despite the liberalisation of the sector, owners of transmission facilities (who continue to operate on a monopoly basis) often have little incen