Natural Experiments in Mobile Phone Regulation: Estimated Effects of Prohibiting Handset Bundling in Finland and Belgium

Vertical restrictions have theoretically ambiguous efficiency effects. Marketplace evidence is therefore required to reveal the presence of anti-competitive foreclosure. The bundling of mobile phones with cellular network service offers one such market test. Two European nations—Finland and Belgium— prohibited tying arrangements for mobile service and mobile devices (handsets) in wireless broadband (3G) markets. These rules were abandoned in 2006 and 2010, respectively, creating natural experiments. This article compares 3G subscribership in European countries from 2003 through 2012. Finland and Belgium, while banning bundles, exhibited 3G penetration levels only about a third of the EU 15 average. Following their respective regime switches, relative 3G penetration levels improved markedly in these countries—Finland, in fact, became an EU leader. Regressions adjusting for market specific factors quantify the effects. The data are consistent with the view that carrier handset subsidies, which are strongly supported by bundling services with hardware, help internalize network effects that, if unsupported by the network carriers, may go unrealized. Vertical integration here appears to assist in productive ecosystem creation, not anti-competitive foreclosure. Keywords: Mobile Phone Regulation, 3G Wireless, Handset Subsidies JEL Codes: K23, L14, L50, L9

Telecommunications Market Evolution in Finland and New Zealand: Unbundling the Differences

Finland and New Zealand are two countries with many geographic social demographic and historic similarities. Their telecommunications markets also demonstrate many superficial similarities. However beneath the superficial performance parallels lie two markets that have developed under fundamentally different cultural institutional commercial and political assumptions. By tracing the development of each market this paper explores the effect that these differences have had upon shaping the markets and explaining both the observed similarities in market performance and the differences. The comparative analysis suggests that Finland's industry characterised by decentralised and privately-owned local firms has adjusted to the more liberalised commercially-focused and competitive markets in the 21st century in a more measured and evolutionary manner than has been observed in New Zealand where centralised government ownership and control prevailed until the revolutionary joint privatisation and liberalisation occurred. The different cultures norms values and attitudes observed in the two countries have both evolved as a consequence of the different market development paths taken and in part explain many of the commercial differences. Nonetheless the most significant differences in observed market performance appear to arise from regulatory artefacts - in New Zealand's case to the distorting influence of universal service and free local calling obligations and in Finland's case to the prevention of mobile handset bundling with subscriptions

Mobile Internet Usage - Network Traffic Measurements

Perustavanlaatuisia muutoksia on tapahtumassa tietoliikennetoimialalla kun Internet ja mobiili konvergoituvat. Matkapuhelimet ovat kehittymässä multimediatietokoneiksi ja kannettavat tietokoneet muuttuvat pienemmiksi ja sisältävät kasvavissa määrin liitettävyyden matkapuhelinverkkoon. Kun samaan aikaan mobiililaajakaistojen hinnat ovat laskeneet ja tarjotut kaistannopeudet kasvaneet, mobiilin Internetin käyttö on lisääntynyt nopeasti viimeisten parin vuoden aikana. Uusia tulonlähteitä etsiessä teollisuuden eri sidosryhmät ovat kiinnostuneita mittauksista jotka voivat auttaa ymmärtämään mobiilin Internetin käyttöä. Tämä diplomityö keskittyy mobiiliverkon liikennemittauksiin ja niiden soveltuvuuden tutkimiseen markkinatiedon tuottamisessa eri sidosryhmille. Työssä analysoidaan suomalaisissa mobiiliverkoissa tehtyjä liikennemittauksia ja tuotetaan statistiikkaa mobiilin Internetin käytöstä. Lisäksi nykyisen mittausjärjestelyn ominaisuuksia analysoidaan, mahdolliset mittausten kehittämisalueet luokitellaan ja suosituksia esitetään mittausten kehittämiseksi. Statistiikat Suomen mobiilii-Internetin käytöstä osoittivat että tietokoneet generoivat suurimman osan Suomen liikennevolyymistä, kun taas matkapuhelinten tuottaman liikenteen osuus on alle prosentti. Symbian-käyttöjärjestelmä dominoi matkapuhelinten käyttöä joka on web-orientoitunutta. Muitakin web-liikenteen luokkia kuin web-selailua, kuten email- ja muuta synkronointiliikennettä, huomattiin käytettävän matkapuhelimilla. Perinteiset kotimaiset mediatalot, sosiaalisen median sivustot ja Nokia ovat suosituimpien web-sisällöntuottajien joukossa. Koska eri mittauspisteet mobiiliverkossa tuottavat eri tarkkuustason tietoa, täytyy mittausprosessiin liittyvät valinnat tehdä mittauksen tavoitteiden mukaan. Jos kehittynyt analyysi on tarpeen, mittausten olisi suositeltavaa suoritettavan pisteessä jossa käyttäjien tunnistaminen on mahdollista, kun taas pelkästä IP-liikenteestä saatavat tulokset ovat riittäviä yleisempään markkinan kuvaamiseen. Mobiilioperaattorin kannalta yhtäjaksoiset ja automatisoidut mittaukset mahdollistaisivat tulosten hyväksikäyttämisen useissa eri yrityksen toiminnoissa. Yleisesti liikennemittausten mahdollisuudet ovat laajat, mutta toisaalta täyden hyödyn saavuttamiseksi resurssivaateet saattavat olla suuria. Liikennemittaukset voivat kuitenkin tuottaa tietoa ja tukea operaattoreita päätöksenteossa ja liiketoiminnan kehittämisessä.Fundamental transformations are taking place in the telecommunication domain as the Internet and mobile industries are converging. Mobile phones are developing into multimedia computers and laptops are getting smaller with cellular connectivity, increasing the amount of mobile Internet capable devices. Furthermore, as mobile broadband prices have decreased and offered bandwidths increased, also the usage of mobile Internet has been increasing rapidly during the past couple of years. In search for new revenue sources, various industry stakeholders are interested in measurements that can help understanding the mobile Internet usage patterns. This thesis focuses on mobile network traffic measurements and studies their applicability for providing market understanding for the different stakeholders. First, measurements from operational Finnish mobile networks are analyzed to provide factual statistics on the usage patterns of the Finnish market. Second, the properties of the existing measurement organization are analyzed, possible measurement design and development areas are classified, and recommendations are provided for further development of the measurements. The factual statistics showed that most of the Finnish mobile Internet usage traffic volume is generated by computers, whereas the share of mobile handset generated traffic is less than one percent. Symbian operating system dominates the web oriented mobile handset usage. Traditional Finnish media houses, social media sites, and Nokia are among the most popular content providers for web usage. In addition, also other web traffic classes than web browsing, such as email and synchronization, were observed to be used by mobile handsets. As different measurement points in a mobile network provide different data granularity, the choices related to the measurement have to be made according to the objectives of the measurement. If advanced analysis is needed, the measurements are recommended to be conducted at a point in the mobile network where user identification is possible, whereas total traffic level patterns from IP traffic are adequate for general market description. From a mobile operator viewpoint, automated and continuous data collection and analysis could enable utilization of the results in multiple corporate functions. In general, the possibilities of traffic measurements are vast. On the other hand, they may require a lot of resources to succeed in their full potential. Nevertheless, mobile network traffic measurements can provide intelligence and support for operators in their decision making and business development

Use of multimedia services within ubiquitous environments: The role of place in the usage process of mobile data services

Recently, there have been rapid developments in the fields of mobile and wireless technologies which have enabled the acquisition of information at anytime regardless of the location and mobility status of the users. However, despite the increasing popularity of mobile devices which are becoming an indispensable part of our everyday activities, the disappointing results regarding the adoption and use of mobile applications and data services lead scholars to question the understanding of the adoption and usage behaviour within these new wireless environments. The author believes that there could be attributes which are still unexplored and could provide an explanation why the mobile data services are still unsuccessful. The aim of this study is to explore, understand and highlight the role of place in the decision of the people to use mobile data services and thus to assist professionals and scholars to consider the importance of the attributes of place in the design of new applications and in the adoption and usage models of mobile technologies and services. In order to achieve this objective an exploratory in nature research was conducted combining conventional and innovative research methodologies. A model of place was generated which served as a sensitizing device in order to interpret, and analyse the collected data. The first phase of this research involved the understanding of the market in question and the selection of the appropriate case (mobile data services platform) to conduct the research. The second main phase of the research then sought to get a better understanding of how users experience place before deciding to use mobile data services. The research methods were applied within everyday settings with 30 users of the selected mobile data services platform, all of whom were selected according to specific criteria. The findings tend to suggest that participants did experience the different places in a similar way before deciding to use mobile data services.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo