Revenue requirements for mobile operators with ultra-high mobile broadband data traffic growth.

Mobile broadband data access over cellular networks has been established as a major new service in just a few years. The mobile broadband penetration has risen from almost zero to between 10 and 15 per cent in Western European leading markets from 2007 to the end of 2009. More than 75% of network traffic was broadband data in 2009, and the data volumes are growing rapidly. But the revenue generation is the reverse as the average for operators in Europe in 2009 was around 77 per cent of service revenues from voice, 10 per cent from SMS and 13 per cent from other data. Voice and broadband data service are built on two quite different business models. Voice pricing is volume based. Revenue depends linearly on the number of voice minutes. Broadband data service on the other hand is mainly flat fee based even if different levels are being introduced as well as tiers. Revenue is decoupled from traffic and therefore also from operating costs and investment requirements. This is what we define as a revenue gap. Earnings as well as internal financing will suffer from increasing traffic per user unless the flat fee can be raised or changed to volume based, other revenue can be obtained and/or operating costs and investments can be reduced accordingly. Observable trends and common forecasts indicate strong growth of mobile broadband traffic as well as declining revenue from mobile voice in the next five year period. This outlook suggests a prospective revenue gap with weak top-line growth and expanding operating costs and investment requirements. This is not only a profitability and cash flow issue. It may also severely restrict the industry's revenue and profit growth potential if it is handled mainly by cost-cutting. In sections 2 - 4 we describe related work, our contribution, the specific research questions as well as the methodology and its problems. Section 5 is an overview of mobile operators' revenue, its sources and development till today. Section 6 presents trends, developments and published forecasts that may be relevant for the future. Section 7 contains our conclusions. --Mobile broadband,mobile operator revenues,revenue requirements,voice revenues,non-voice revenues

E-Commerce and Banking Performance in Nigeria

E-commerce is relatively new in Nigeria and this business approach is fast gaining momentum. It has gradually emerged strongly and it’s advancing rapidly in all areas of financial intermediation and financial markets. This development has no doubt earned a competitive advantage owing to the fact that the recent development in telecommunications and information technology has resulted in new delivery channels for banking products and services. One of such derived benefits from e-commerce and its resultant impact on banking performance is its improved efficiency and effectiveness, convenience, reliability, flexibility, speed, etc. in order to enhance effective service delivery and boost banking performance in the Nigerian economy. However, as to how e-commerce practices can be employed in the pursuit of a sustainable development and economic growth is yet to be firmly established. This research work particularly describes the significance of e-commerce system by explaining the transition from the traditional business practices to the evolving electronic commerce practices which has broken many new grounds and has taken a global dimension.  Again, it explains why the electronic commerce channels such as the use of ATM, telecommunications, social networks, internet banking, POS terminals, Mobile phones, software applications, etc could enable business to blossom and reduce the movement of cash/cash handling which in turn helps to curb crime rates, mitigate other barricading challenges and would protect us from many dangers.  Also, it explains why it has gained greater height of acceptability and thus explains how information communication technology (ICT) could be exploited and enhanced for this purpose.  Conclusively, it develops a strategic management framework for leveraging e-commerce practices by providing considerable and practical suggestions on the use of e-e-commerce - its features, benefits, success factors and possible attendant risks associated with e-commerce. It guarantees customers’ patronage,  improve the standard of living, as well as facilitating economic, social and technological changes as certain values are expoused by sustainable development which in turn, would help to foster economic growth in the Nigerian economy . it was recommended that government and banks should establish adequate regulatory framework that will ensure customers’ protection and security of investment. Keywords: e-commerce, e-banking, mobile commerce/mobile banking, internet banking, information technology, social networks.

Business and technical aspects of mobile peer-to-peer social networks

Introduction of mobile high-capacity networks, as well as the widespread penetration of powerful mobile handsets provide a good basis for the development of peer-to-peer applications in the mobile environment. However, it is not certain if the P2P services that were well adopted in the fixed In-ternet can also be successfully launched in the mobile environment.   This article dissertation presents research results of mobile community service provisioning using P2P technology. The study was carried out on two levels: technical and business. On the business level the dissertation discusses the mobile P2P service provisioning ecosystem including analysis of stakeholder needs as well as potential scenarios for mobile P2P services. The dissertation presents the results of a user survey and a literature study. The presented material reveals that there is room for P2P services in the mobile environment, however user requirements are different than in the fixed environment. The dissertation also presents a scenario planning methodology that proposes the Schoemaker’s variant of scenario planning as a suitable method for evaluating emerging mobile services. Consistent and coherent learning scenarios that were developed using the proposed methodology are also presented.   On the technical level, the dissertation presents P2P system architectures, protocols, and algorithms that enable the provision of community services in the mobile environment. In particular, the dissertation describes the world first resource sharing system that works on top of SIP networks. The system enables mobile phone users to share resources with each other and does not require any changes to the basic SIP infrastructure. A Social DHT architecture that allows for efficient formation of mobile communities is also presented. The dissertation shows how the P2P infrastructure can become a feasible cost efficient replacement for a mobile infrastructure by presenting a Distributed IP Multimedia Subsystem as well as a pioneering new mobile P2PSIP system for real-time communication services. The dissertation discusses an implementation of a P2P system that allows mobile phone users to search for knowledge in their trusted social communities overcoming the problems identified in the business study of the dissertation. The results of measurements and trials conducted show the technical feasibility of mobile community service provisioning using P2P technology

Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications

A large number of new consumer and industrial applications are likely to change the classic operator's business models and provide a wide range of new markets to enter. This article analyses the most relevant 5G use cases that require ultra-low latency, from both technical and business perspectives. Low latency services pose challenging requirements to the network, and to fulfill them operators need to invest in costly changes in their network. In this sense, it is not clear whether such investments are going to be amortized with these new business models. In light of this, specific applications and requirements are described and the potential market benefits for operators are analysed. Conclusions show that operators have clear opportunities to add value and position themselves strongly with the increasing number of services to be provided by 5G.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

A case study of MMO2's Madic: A framework for creating mobile internet systems

Mobile Internet applications on ubiquitous mobile networks allows real-time, anywhere, anytime connectivity to services. Due to its scalability and potential cost savings, mobile communication is being increasingly applied in the business and consumer communities to create innovative data and voice application, which run over the Internet infrastructure. This paper reports on a case study at an organisation that created an innovative approach to developing mobile applications developed by third party independent developers. A conceptual wireless reference model is presented that was used to define the various system components required to create effective mobile applications

Managing Wireless Networks in the Healthcare Sector: Emerging Experiences of Cultural Impacts

The existing body of knowledge has generally supported that organizational culture plays a significant role in shaping group identity, work pattern, communication schemes, and interpersonal relations; all of these cultural elements are important organizational factors that shape workplaces and operational routines. In the context of emerging information technology, it has also been suggested that organizational culture could affect IT implementation and management. However, little is known about how emerging information technology shapes organizational culture, which in turn helps reshape the organization as a whole. The purpose of this paper is thus to build empirical understanding of how IT in general and emerging wireless networks in particular reshapes organizational culture. Case studies conducted in two hospitals situated in southwest U.S.A. illustrated that the implementation of wireless networks indeed helped shape and/or reshape organizational culture in the healthcare sector and in turn enhance healthcare organizations’ competitiveness in the marketplace. For IT managers and practitioners in healthcare institutions, effective strategy to plan and manage emerging ITs such as wireless networks will thus have long-term implications on cultivating organizational culture that could eventually reshape workplace and competitiveness

Business model requirements and challenges in the mobile telecommunication sector

The telecommunications business is undergoing a critical revolution, driven by innovative technologies, globalization, and deregulation. Cellular networks and telecommunications bring radical changes to the way telecom businesses are conducted. Globalization, on the other hand, is tearing down legacy barriers and forcing monopolistic national carriers to compete internationally. Moreover, the noticeable progress of many countries towards deregulation coupled with liberalization is significantly increasing telecom market power and allowing severe competition. The implications of this transition have changed the business rules of the telecom industry. In addition, entrants into the cellular industry have had severe difficulties due to inexistent or weak Business Models (BMs). Designing a BM for a mobile network operator is complex and requires multiple actors to balance different and often conflicting design requirements. Hence, there is a need to enhance operators’ ability in determining what constitutes the most viable business model to meet their strategic objectives within this turbulent environment. In this paper, the authors identify the main mobile BM dimensions along with their interdependencies and further analysis provides mobile network operators with insights to improve their business models in this new ‘boundary-less’ landscape

A business planning framework for WiMAX applications

Mobile networking refers to wireless technologies which provide communications between devices. Applications for mobile networking have a broad scope as they can be applied to many situations in either industrial or commercial sectors. The challenge for firms is to better match market-induced variability to the organizational issues and systems necessary for technological innovation. This chapter develops a business planning framework for mobile networking applications. This framework recognises the fluidity of the situation when trying to anticipate and model emerging wireless applications. The business planning framework outlined in this chapter is a generic model which can be used by companies to assess the business case for applications utilizing mobile networking technologies

Towards a business model for cellular network and telecommunication operators: a theoretical framework

Cellular networks and telecommunications bring major change to the way businesses are conducted. Mobility has become one of the main priorities for users and this has impacted on cellular networks and telecommunication operators (CNTOs). However, entrants into the cellular industry have been confounded primarily by inexistent or weak Business Models (BMs). Designing a BM for a CNTO is complex and requires multiple actors to balance different and often conflicting design requirements. Nevertheless, most research about CNTOs has been technically oriented and has mainly addressed the technological and engineering issues related to their infrastructure. Less attention has been given to the business model of CNTOs. Hence, there is a need to enhance our ability to determine what constitutes the optimal and most viable business model to meet the various strategic objectives and goals for these CNTOs. In this paper an overview of research into the cellular business model and the main issues to be resolved is provided. In particular, the authors propose guidelines as a basis on which to develop a more comprehensive definition which may lead to a consensus. Moreover, a generic model (V4 Model) is proposed for the BM of these companies based on value proposition, value architecture, value network and value finance

Network strategies for the new economy

In this paper we argue that the pace and scale of development in the information and communication technology industries (ICT) has had and continues to have major effects on the industry economics and competitive dynamics generally. We maintain that the size of changes in demand and supply conditions is forcing companies to make significant changes in the way they conceive and implement their strategies. We decompose the ICT industries into four levels, technology standards, supply chains, physical platforms, and consumer networks. The nature of these technologies and their cost characteristics coupled with higher degrees of knowledge specialisation is impelling companies to radical revisions of their attitudes towards cooperation and co-evolution with suppliers and customers. Where interdependencies between customers are particularly strong, we anticipate the possibility of winner-takes-all strategies. In these circumstances industry risks become very high and there will be significant consequences for competitive markets