How can regulation be designed to foster investment in major infrastructure projects now outstanding in network industries, such as the upgrade to Next Generation Networks in telecoms? Economists, engineers and policymakers are busy with this issue. In a recent discussion paper, Pierre Larouche provides acritical legal contribution to the debate. When the focus of regulation moves away from increasing efficiency on a constant-asset basis ("fat trimming") to ensuring that assets are correctly replaced and upgraded over time, weaknesses in institutional design come to the fore. As regards substance, if structural solutions -that is, separation- are not retained, behavioural regulation must be reviewed (including regulatory holidays). Here the ex ante/ex post distinction obscures the debate. The appropriate standard should be that investors are not subjected to more risk than with comparable investments elsewhere. An ex ante statement of the conditions under which ex post intervention will take place might well be the best option. Secondly, as regards institutions, the need for EC-level coordination can be overstated: some measure of divergence is also useful to gather empirical information. In any event, regulation is likely to be fairly granular, even within a single Member State.