r degree when com- pared with fixed infrastructure. Lower cost of infrastructure roll-out means that natural monopoly forces are not very strong and therefore multiple players may compete. In most countries of the world oligopolies of a few major operators have emerged. On the other hand, wireless broadband telecommunications systems require frequency spectrum to operate, which is a national resource, owned and regulated by the government. In these countries government policy decisions are mostly concerned with economically efficient allocation of spectrum and competition maintenance. Here, governments need to also follow an interna- tional spectrum allocation regime. While this impinges on a government's national sover- eignty, equipment manufacturing considerations mandate a large degree of uniform global spectrum allocation in order to minimise development cost. Government policies in regards to fixed infrastructure vary in different countries: for example, Australia's NBN is a fully government-owned business; whereas infrastructure own- ership in the United States is largely left to the private sector. For fixed infrastructure, policy focus is on how to regulate a monopoly, or how to introduce and maintain market competition. At times geographical division of an infrastructural asset is used as a proxy competition: company A may own and operate infrastructure in one state and company B in another. Policy issues of importance to the infrastructure layer are illustrated in Figure 2.19. In contrast, the retail layer policy issues concern vertical integration leading to discrimina- tory behaviour by companies. Furthermore, companies at this layer access and may collect subscriber information and may need to be regulated to ensure such information is kept private and confidential. Monopoly concerns are small as these are generally low fixed-cost businesses Technology, Business and Policy Infrastructure layer Natural monopoly Service to rural areas International regulations Figure 2.19 Infrastructure layer policy c