Broadbanding Brunswick: High-speed broadband and household media ecologies

New research from the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University has found that 82% of households in the NBN first release site of Brunswick, Victoria, think the NBN is a good idea. The study, Broadbanding Brunswick: High-speed Broadband and Household Media Ecologies, examines the take-up, use and implications of high-speed broadband for some of its earliest adopters. It looks at how the adoption of high-speed broadband influences household consumption patterns and use of telecoms. The survey of 282 Brunswick households found there had been a significant uptake of the NBN during the course of the research. In 2011, 20% of households were connected to the NBN and in 2012 that number had risen to 34%. Families, home owners, higher income earners and teleworkers were most likely to adopt the NBN. Many NBN users reported paying less for their monthly internet bills, with 49% paying about the same. In many cases those paying more (37%) had elected to do so.Download report: Broadbanding Brunswick: High-speed Broadband and Household Media Ecologies [PDF, 2.5MB] Download report: Broadbanding Brunswick: High-speed Broadband and Household Media Ecologies [Word 2007 document, 5MB

The use of social media marketing in telecommunication business: an exploratory study of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited

The study focused on the use of social media marketing in the telecommunication business in Zimbabwe, as it has received limited attention in the literature available to date. The study aimed to explore the use of social media marketing in a telecommunications business- Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited. The study took on an exploratory research design which was qualitative in nature. A case study approach was applied with Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited as focus of being studied. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited was chosen because it is the market leader in the telecommunications industry which has adopted the use of social media marketing in its business. Data collection was done through in-depth interviews with judgement sampling being used to choose the participants for the interviews. The data collected was analysed using thematic analysis. It was found that Econet Wireless Limited is using social media marketing to communicate with its customers, for their brand to be visible. They also use it because it is an inexpensive way to promote their business with a possibility to reach a large number of people in a short space of time.Business ManagementM. Com. (Business Management

Strategies to Secure a Voice Over Internet Protocol Telephone System

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) provides cost-effective phone service over a broadband internet connection rather than analog telephone services. While VoIP is a fast-growing technology, there are issues with intercepting and misusing transmissions, which are security concerns within telecommunication organizations and for customers. Grounded in the routine activity theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies information technology (IT) security managers used to secure VoIP telephone systems in telecommunication organizations. The participants consisted of nine IT security managers from three telecommunication organizations in New York who possessed the knowledge and expertise to secure a VoIP telephone system. The data were collected using semi structured interviews, note taking, and one document from one organization. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis: best practices for VoIP security, using a secure VoIP provider, VoIP security recommendations, and awareness of future security concerns. A key recommendation for IT security professionals is to ensure encryption to secure a VoIP telephone system. The implications for positive social change include the potential for IT security managers and telecommunication organizations to reduce data breaches and the theft of their customers’ identities and credit card information

Quality aspects of Internet telephony

Internet telephony has had a tremendous impact on how people communicate. Many now maintain contact using some form of Internet telephony. Therefore the motivation for this work has been to address the quality aspects of real-world Internet telephony for both fixed and wireless telecommunication. The focus has been on the quality aspects of voice communication, since poor quality leads often to user dissatisfaction. The scope of the work has been broad in order to address the main factors within IP-based voice communication. The first four chapters of this dissertation constitute the background material. The first chapter outlines where Internet telephony is deployed today. It also motivates the topics and techniques used in this research. The second chapter provides the background on Internet telephony including signalling, speech coding and voice Internetworking. The third chapter focuses solely on quality measures for packetised voice systems and finally the fourth chapter is devoted to the history of voice research. The appendix of this dissertation constitutes the research contributions. It includes an examination of the access network, focusing on how calls are multiplexed in wired and wireless systems. Subsequently in the wireless case, we consider how to handover calls from 802.11 networks to the cellular infrastructure. We then consider the Internet backbone where most of our work is devoted to measurements specifically for Internet telephony. The applications of these measurements have been estimating telephony arrival processes, measuring call quality, and quantifying the trend in Internet telephony quality over several years. We also consider the end systems, since they are responsible for reconstructing a voice stream given loss and delay constraints. Finally we estimate voice quality using the ITU proposal PESQ and the packet loss process. The main contribution of this work is a systematic examination of Internet telephony. We describe several methods to enable adaptable solutions for maintaining consistent voice quality. We have also found that relatively small technical changes can lead to substantial user quality improvements. A second contribution of this work is a suite of software tools designed to ascertain voice quality in IP networks. Some of these tools are in use within commercial systems today

The impact of mobile telephony services on performance outcomes of micro-businesses in developing economies: with evidence from micro-business communities in Afghanistan and Cameroon

This thesis reports on a study conducted to investigate the relationship between the integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business processes and perceived enhanced business performance in a developing economy context, with detailed evidence drawn from a sample of 210 micro-businesses in Afghanistan and Cameroon. The research conceptualises, operationalises, and empirically tests an eclectic research model which integrates theory from the literature on the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), on information economics, on strategic management, on entrepreneurship, and on small business growth and business performance. The research data was collected through a questionnaire, and call data extracted from the mobile phone activity-logs of micro-business owner-managers. This data was supplemented by the use of carefully-chosen photographs. The collected data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling Techniques (SEM) with the help of AMOS 17 and SPSS statistical packages. The study also used Latent Visual Data Analysis (LVDA) to corroborate the statistical outcomes of this analysis. The results of this study identified the ‘integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business operations’, the ‘entrepreneurial competence of micro-business owner-managers’ and the ‘micro-business environment’ as having a direct influence on perceived enhanced business performance because of their potential to enable substantial cost savings, provide greater integration of the internal and external environments of the business, increase operational flexibility and reduce information asymmetries. The results also identified that ‘micro-business environments’ in Afghanistan and Cameroon tend to have a negative relationship with enhanced business performance if not moderated by the use of mobile telephony services. Finally, given the importance of micro-businesses in stimulating economic growth in developing economies and their relatively high failure rates, and because of the fact that many micro-businesses perceive that the cost of mobile telephony services are ‘high-to-very high’, this research provides greater opportunity for a discussion of the kinds of intervention strategies that could be used to improve the business integration of mobile telephony services and could therefore enhanced business performance

Estimating Potential Business in Tanzanian Mobile Service Industry

During the last decade, there has been remarkable growth in mobile penetration in most of developing countries. However, most of the Tanzanian population cannot access real time services and accurate market information due to limited and underdeveloped infrastructure. The recent convergence of mobile and communication technologies has resulted to mobile services and accelerated by high penetration of mobile phones in both developed and underdeveloped market such as Tanzanian mobile market. The objective of this research study is developing a conceptual framework that will be used as a guidance tool for estimating business potential in mobile service industry. Hence, improving decision making process for managers or entrepreneurs in investing in prevailing opportunities related to mobile money services business. This research study has based mostly on literature review and complemented by empirical data. Literature review helped to develop a conceptual framework for estimating potential business in mobile services. Meanwhile, samples of six experienced staffs working in Tanzanian mobile industry were interviewed. A developed conceptual framework is applied in Tanzanian market by narrowing mobile service scope to mobile money services. The main outcome of this thesis is a conceptual framework which is used as a guidance tool to managers or entrepreneurs who are planning to estimates potential business in mobile services for either existing markets or expanding in a new market segments. It is very important to any managers, investors and entrepreneurs to quantify business opportunities before stepping into any business. The developed conceptual framework focuses on three critical areas (1) selecting an appropriate target market segment, (2) identifying a sustainable business model that ensure revenue generation and, (3) screening potential business in market potential assessment factors such as Market size, Market consumption rate, Market receptivity, Market growth rate, Economic infrastructure, Economic freedom, Market intensity and Accessibility