Optimal Bundle of Multimedia Services in Emerging Mobile Markets

Although various emerging technologies have been launched, they present limitations as far as offering full-scale ubiquitous services independently is concerned. In view of this fact, service providers are likely to provide bundled services among possible combinations of services. Indeed, making a timely decision regarding the value maximization of bundled service is directly related to service providers' future growth and success in the turbulent market environment. This paper aims to find the optimal service bundle among five emerging mobile services: T-DMB, S-DMB, WiBro, HSDPA, and Telematics. Considering what kinds of service features among the five emerging services offer differentiation to customers, we examine four attributes (TV, voice, portable wireless internet, and location-based services) using conjoint analysis to distinguish the service features. Our results show that TV service is the most favored among the attributes, followed by voice service in second position, and the internet and location-based service in third and fourth place respectively. Our result implies that mobile operators would be better off bundling HSDPA and S-DMB first, and then adding other services later, while fixed operators would be better off bundling WiBro and S-DMB first and other services later.telecommunications and broadcasting convergence; emerging service; 4G Technology; T-DMB; S-DMB; WiBro; HSDPA; telematics; customer preference

Mobile Television: Challenges of Advanced Service Design

In this paper, we propose an integrative framework based on dynamic models of the evolution of industries. The main arguments are illustrated using the case of mobile TV. One main assertion is that the value network of mobile data services is much more complex than that of previous generations of mobile services, in particular voice and messaging. The new environment requires a significantly higher degree of coordination and integration between more participants in the value net and a consistent constellation of technology, policy and firm strategy. Unless such compatible arrangements are in place, mobile TV will not take off. The paper develops these themes theoretically and illustrates them with a detailed case study of mobile TV in South Korea as well as comments on the situation in Europe and the U.S. The private and public sectors in South Korea were capable of producing conditions in which mobile TV could flourish. Even so, significant challenges remain to create a financially sustainable mobile TV industry. In contrast, in Europe and the U.S. major obstacles to the development of mobile TV continue to exist. Unless these obstacles, including problems with spectrum policy, are addressed, mobile TV may not be able to develop its full market potential

Service Platform for Converged Interactive Broadband Broadcast and Cellular Wireless

A converged broadcast and telecommunication service platform is presented that is able to create, deliver, and manage interactive, multimedia content and services for consumption on three different terminal types. The motivations of service providers for designing converged interactive multimedia services, which are crafted for their individual requirements, are investigated. The overall design of the system is presented with particular emphasis placed on the operational features of each of the sub-systems, the flows of media and metadata through the sub-systems and the formats and protocols required for inter-communication between them. The key features of tools required for creating converged interactive multimedia content for a range of different end-user terminal types are examined. Finally possible enhancements to this system are discussed. This study is of particular interest to those organizations currently conducting trials and commercial launches of DVB-H services because it provides them with an insight of the various additional functions required in the service provisioning platforms to provide fully interactive services to a range of different mobile terminal types

INTELLIGENTE TRANSPORT SYSTEMEN ITS EN VERKEERSVEILIGHEID

This report discusses Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This generic term is used for a broad range of information-, control- and electronic technology that can be integrated in the road infrastructure and the vehicles themselves, saving lives, time and money bymonitoring and managing traffic flows, reducing conges-tion, avoiding accidents, etc. Because this report was written in the scope of the Policy Research Centre Mobility & Public Works, track Traffic Safety, it focuses on ITS systems from the traffic safety point of view. Within the whole range of ITS systems, two categories can be distinguished: autonomous and cooperative systems. Autonomous systems are all forms of ITS which operate by itself, and do not depend on the cooperation with other vehicles or supporting infrastructure. Example applications are blind spot detection using radar, electronic stability control, dynamic traffic management using variable road signs, emergency call, etc. Cooperative systems are ITS systems based on communication and cooperation, both between vehicles as between vehicles and infrastructure. Example applications are alerting vehicles approaching a traffic jam, exchanging data regarding hazardous road conditions, extended electronic brake light, etc. In some cases, autonomous systems can evolve to autonomous cooperative systems. ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaptation) is an example of this: the dynamic aspect as well as communication with infrastructure (eg Traffic lights, Variable Message Sign (VMS)...) can provide additional road safety. This is the clear link between the two parts of this report. The many ITS applications are an indicator of the high expectations from the government, the academic world and the industry regarding the possibilities made possible by both categories of ITS systems. Therefore, the comprehensive discussion of both of them is the core of this report. The first part of the report covering the autonomous systems treats two aspects: 1. Overview of European projects related to mobility and in particular to road safety 2. Overview for guidelines for the evaluation of ITS projects. Out of the wide range of diverse (autonomous) ITS applications a selection is made; this selection is focused on E Safety Forum and PreVENT. Especially the PreVent research project is interesting because ITS-applications have led to a number of concrete demonstration vehicles that showed - in protected and unprotected surroundings- that these ITS-applications are already technically useful or could be developed into useful products. The component “guidelines for the evaluation of ITS projects” outlines that the government has to have specific evaluation tools if the government has the ambition of using ITS-applications for road safety. Two projects -guidelines for the evaluation of ITS projects- are examined; a third evaluation method is only mentioned because this description shows that a specific targeting of the government can be desirable : 1. TRACE describes the guidelines for the evaluation of ITS projects which are useful for the evaluation of specific ITS-applications. 2. FITS contains Finnish guidelines for the evaluation of ITS project; FIS is an adaptation of methods used for evaluation of transport projects. 3. The third evaluation method for the evaluation of ITS projects is developed in an ongoing European research project, eImpact. eImpact is important because, a specific consultation of stake holders shows that the social importance of some techniques is underestimated. These preliminary results show that an appropriate guiding role for the government could be important. In the second part of this document the cooperative systems are discussed in depth. These systems enable a large number of applications with an important social relevance, both on the level of the environment, mobility and traffic safety. Cooperative systems make it possible to warn drivers in time to avoid collisions (e.g. when approaching the tail of a traffic jam, or when a ghost driver is detected). Hazardous road conditions can be automatically communicated to other drivers (e.g. after the detection of black ice or an oil trail by the ESP). Navigation systems can receive detailed real-time up-dates about the current traffic situation and can take this into account when calculating their routes. When a traffic distortion occurs, traffic centers can immediately take action and can actively influence the way that the traffic will be diverted. Drivers can be notified well in advance about approaching emergency vehicles, and can be directed to yield way in a uniform manner. This is just a small selection from the large number of applications that are made possible because of cooperative ITS systems, but it is very obvious that these systems can make a significant positive contribution to traffic safety. In literature it is estimated that the decrease of accidents with injuries of fatalities will be between 20% and 50% . It is not suprising that ITS systems receive a lot of attention for the moment. On an international level, a number of standards are being established regarding this topic. The International Telecommunications Uniont (ITU), Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Association of Radio Industries and Business (ARIB) and European committee for standardization (CEN) are currently defining standards that describe different aspects of ITS systems. One of the names that is mostly mentioned in literature is the ISO TC204/WG16 Communications Architecture for Land Mobile environment (CALM) standard. It describes a framework that enables transparent (both for the application and the user) continuous communication through different communication media. Besides the innumerable standardization activities, there is a great number of active research projects. On European level, the most important are the i2010 Intelligent Car Initiative, the eSafety Forum, and the COMeSafety, the CVIS, the SAFESPOT, the COOPERS and the SEVECOM project. The i2010 Intelligent Car Initiative is an European initiative with the goal to halve the number of traffic casualties by 2010. The eSafety Forum is an initiative of the European Commission, industry and other stakeholders and targets the acceleration of development and deployment of safety-related ITS systems. The COMeSafety project supports the eSafety Forum on the field of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. In the CVIS project, attention is given to both technical and non-technical issues, with the main goal to develop the first free and open reference implementation of the CALM architecture. The SAFEST project investigates which data is important for safety applications, and with which algorithmsthis data can be extracted from vehicles and infrastructure. The COOPERS project mainly targets communication between vehicles and dedicated roadside infrastructure. Finally, the SEVECOM project researches security and privacy issues. Besides the European projects, research is also conducted in the United States of America (CICAS and VII projects) and in Japan (AHSRA, VICS, Smartway, internetITS). Besides standardization bodies and governmental organizations, also the industry has a considerable interest in ITS systems. In the scope of their ITS activities, a number of companies are united in national and international organizations. On an international level, the best known names are the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium, and Ertico. The C2C CC unites the large European car manufacturers, and focuses on the development of an open standard for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications based on the already well established IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard. Ertico is an European multi-sector, public/private partnership with the intended purpose of the development and introduction of ITS systems. On a national level, FlandersDrive and The Telematics Cluster / ITS Belgium are the best known organizations. Despite the worldwide activities regarding (cooperative) ITS systems, there still is no consensus about the wireless technology to be used in such systems. This can be put down to the fact that a large number of suitable technologies exist or are under development. Each technology has its specific advantages and disadvantages, but no single technology is the ideal solution for every ITS application. However, the different candidates can be classified in three distinct categories. The first group contains solutions for Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), such as the WAVE technology. The second group is made up of several cellular communication networks providing coverage over wide areas. Examples are GPRS (data communication using the GSM network), UMTS (faster then GPRS), WiMAX (even faster then UMTS) and MBWA (similar to WiMAX). The third group consists of digital data broadcast technologies such as RDS (via the current FM radio transmissions, slow), DAB and DMB (via current digital radio transmissions, quicker) and DVB-H (via future digital television transmissions for mobiledevices, quickest). The previous makes it clear that ITS systems are a hot topic right now, and they receive a lot of attention from the academic world, the standardization bodies and the industry. Therefore, it seems like that it is just a matter of time before ITS systems will find their way into the daily live. Due to the large number of suitable technologies for the implementation of cooperative ITS systems, it is very hard to define which role the government has to play in these developments, and which are the next steps to take. These issues were addressed in reports produced by the i2010 Intelligent Car Initiative and the CVIS project. Their state of the art overview revealed that until now, no country has successfully deployed a fully operational ITS system yet. Seven EU countries are the furthest and are already in the deployment phase: Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Spain and France. These countries are trailed by eight countries which are in the promotion phase: Denmark, Greece, Italy, Austria, Belgium,Norway, the Czech Republic and Poland. Finally, the last ten countries find themselves in the start-up phase: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland and Luxembourg. These European reports produced by the i2010 Intelligent Car Initiative and the CVIS project have defined a few policy recommendations which are very relevant for the Belgian and Flemish government. The most important recommendations for the Flemish government are: • Support awareness: research revealed that civilians consider ITS applications useful, but they are not really willing to pay for this technology. Therefore, it is important to convince the general public of the usefulness and the importance of ITS systems. • Fill the gaps: Belgium is situated in the promotion phase. This means that it should focus at identifying the missing stakeholders, and coordinating national and regional ITS activities. Here it is important that the research activities are coordinated in a national and international context to allow transfer of knowledge from one study to the next, as well as the results to be comparable. • Develop a vision: in the scope of ITS systems policies have to be defined regarding a large number of issues. For instance there is the question if ITS users should be educated, meaning that the use of ITS systems should be the subject of the drivers license exam. How will the regulations be for the technical inspection of vehicles equipped with ITS technology? Will ITS systems be deployed on a voluntary base, or will they e.g. be obliged in every new car? Will the services be offered by private companies, by the public authorities, or by a combination of them? Which technology will be used to implement ITS systems? These are just a few of the many questions where the government will have to develop a point of view for. • Policy coordination: ITS systems are a policy subject on an international, national and regional level. It is very important that these policy organizations can collaborate in a coordinated manner. • Iterative approach to policy development: developing policies for this complex matter is not a simple task. This asks for an iterative approach, where policy decisions are continuously refined and adjusted

Digital Television Broadcast Adoption In Latin America

This paper proposes a model of the decision factors used by countries to decide which digital television (DTV) broadcast standard to adopt. The focus is on countries in Latin America that are in the midst of adopting and/or implementing new standards. This paper uses a multiple case study approach and independent inter-rater techniques to extract a set of decision factors used by four Latin American countries to select a digital broadcast television standard. Two decision factors expected by the researchers were confirmed. In addition, two additional decision factors were identified. This research is valuable in developing a deeper understanding of governmental decision-making processes regarding technology, but is not intended for predictive purposes.This paper provides an overview of the different global digital broadcast standards and adoption processes that are underway. It uses this information to develop a set of factors that encompass the decision process for DTV standards adoptions at the national governmental level

Korea\u27s Lead in Mobile Cellular and DMB Phone Services

Now that the number of cellular phone subscribers is over 1.6 billion in the world and over 180 million in the United States, it is an appropriate time to consider Asia, the “new” wireless economy, with respect to mobile telephony. Several major cellular phone service providers chose Korea as a testing ground to assess the effects of third generation (3G) technology and deployment. Several Korean mobile carriers plan to roll-out the world’s first handset-based satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services via cellular phones. This letter presents a status report on cellular phone services and applications in Korea. It also describes nine major factors influencing Korea’s status as a leader in mobile cellular phone and services. An important influence is the younger generation of cellular phone users in Japan and Korea who associate the cellular phone trend with their social status

Digital radio report

In common with other industrialised countries, the radio industry in Australia is in the midst of a significant transformation. Traditional analogue radio services, broadcasting on AM and FM frequencies, remain popular and continue to attract substantial audiences and revenue. However, the analogue platform is very mature, offering only limited capacity for technical change and development, and FM spectrum is now largely fully occupied in population dense areas. In addition, AM transmissions face growing pressure from urban development and related increasing signal interference. The Australian radio industry therefore retains a strong interest in the opportunities presented by digital radio for service innovation and future growth. To date, digital terrestrial radio services have been licensed for the five mainland state capital cities,1 and trials involving such services are underway in Canberra and Darwin. Within the mainland state capital cities, take up of digital terrestrial radio services continues to grow slowly but steadily with listenership reaching almost 25 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.2 Listenership has benefitted from increased availability of digital radio receivers in motor vehicles (a primary source of listening) and the recent additional rollout of in-fill transmitters increasing coverage of the services in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The cost and complexity of rolling out Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus (DAB+)-based digital terrestrial radio services across regional Australia3 present major challenges for the industry. The need to cover large geographic areas with small and dispersed populations offers unique challenges which have not been faced in many international markets. At the same time, Australians are rapidly adopting new types of technology with the growth of online audio platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. These services are complementing the move by traditional radio businesses—most notably the national broadcasters—to deliver radio services online or through mobile apps. The announcement by Apple of a move into the streamed audio market will only increase the choices available to audiences. These services may herald a generational change in listening habits with significant implications for traditional platforms over time. That said, there are ongoing challenges with the bandwidth and data transmission requirements of these services being delivered to large audiences over mobile and wireless platforms. The digital terrestrial radio industry is subject to a range of regulatory requirements in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (the Radiocommunications Act), which govern matters such as the planning and start up of services, and the sharing of and access to the transmission multiplex in each area. Against the background of changes in the radio industry, this review considers whether changes are required to this framework to provide greater flexibility to the industry and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) to plan for change and ensure that the radio industry is well placed to determine its future strategies for digital services. Key issues examined by the review included: the current state of digital terrestrial radio in Australia, and the impacts of alternative technologies on the industry and listeners; whether Australia should set a digital switchover date for analogue commercial, national, community or other terrestrially transmitted radio services; what legislative/regulatory arrangements should be in place to assist the rollout of digital terrestrial radio services in regional areas; and whether changes are required to the legislative regime for digital radio, including to reduce the regulatory burden on industry