Are traffic charges needed to avert a coming capex catastrophe?

The net neutrality debate is now gathering steam in Europe, both at the Commission level and in member states. Against this background, four European telcos commissioned a report from AT Kearney, to support their opposition to net neutrality regulation. This report, A Viable Future Model for the Internet, claims that carriers are facing ballooning capex requirements to fund the growth of internet traffic and that the best way to address this structural problem is via traffic charges to online service providers.

In response Robert Kenny has written a paper, Are traffic charges need to avert a coming capex catastrophe?, that takes a critical look at the AT Kearney report, considering it from technical, economic and regulatory perspectives.

It received several positive reviews, and has been cited by BEREC (the umbrella body of European regulators), ARCEP (the French regulator) and the Norwegian Posts & Telecoms Authority. 

You can download the report here.