Addressing Cooperation between Mobile Operators in Telecommunication Networks via Optimization: A Lexicographic Approach and Case Study in Colombia

Cooperation between Telecommunications (Telco) operators has been limited both by regulation and competition in previous years. However, cooperation could not only allow an overall growth in quality of service (QoS) but also may benefit companies with under exploited nodes in their network infrastructure. This way, both fully deployed infrastructure by single Telco companies, as well as smaller companies with increasing service demand but low infrastructure deployment could potentially benefit from cooperation agreements. This article proposes a lexicographic mixed-integer linear optimization model for Telco cooperation composed by two phases: Phase 1 maximizes the number of services connected to the current infrastructure assuming cooperation between operators while Phase 2 minimizes the costs of connecting such services. We built a simple base scenario that allowed us to validate the intuition behind our model. Furthermore, to demonstrate the applicability of our lexicographic optimization model for cooperation between mobile operators, we present a real-world case study in a rural area in Colombia that allowed us to find the marginal costs of additional national roaming connections, as well as marginal profits under the cooperation schema. Our results could help mobile operators to benefit from cooperation and, since the model adapts to the local necessities of the company, cooperation could be restricted to any desired level