Substitutability and Competition between Mobile and Fixed line Service: an Empirical Study in Iran

This paper estimates demand functions for wireless and wireline phone, using Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and attempts to test the hypothesis of substitutability between wireless and wireline in Iran. The results indicate that the number of mobile subscribers has been growing more than the number of wireline subscribers over studied period. This maybe because of lower price of mobile access in recent years. This process may lead to complete substitubility of mobile services in the future. The price elasticities of fixed and mobile services show the sensivity of subscribers, specially for the mobile services. The results show that price and service regulations are needed, since market forces aren’t sufficient to hold prices in check. This fact may arise from factors such as; government supply of services, insufficient competition and inerease in the price of wireless services compane to wireline services.