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

Analysis of Radio Spectrum Market Evolution Possibilities

A tremendous growth in wireless traffic volumes and a shortage of feasible radio spectrum has led to a situation where the old and rigid spectrum regime is not a viable option for spectrum management and a shift towards a more market driven approach has begun. Great uncertainty still exists over how such a radio spectrum market will come about and what kind of shape it would take. This paper studies some long term macro level evolution possibilities for how this radio spectrum market could emerge and what would be the corresponding value chain configurations. The scenario planning and system dynamics methods are utilized to build four alternative future spectrum market scenarios.Spectrum Markets, Spectrum Policy, Flexible Spectrum Usage, Cognitive Radio, Value Networks, Scenario Planning, System Dynamics.

Analysis of google entry in unified communications from a resource and competence perspective

The business communications market has been deeply transformed by technological and product convergence, due to the progressive substitution of traditional TDM-based voice products and services by ToIP (Telephony over IP) based products and services. The adoption of IP and the management of voice applications in the same way as data application has given rise to convergence offerings under the name of Unified Communications, and allowed the entry of data communications vendors, such as Cisco, in a market initially dominated by TDM-based product vendors. The increasing dissociation between hardware and software and the virtualisation of services have induced the entry of new players relying on their position in software and web services, among which Microsoft and Google. In this paper, drawing on the resource-based perspective, we analyse the patterns of entry of Google in this market. In particular, we highlight how Google relies on current specific resources, acquire and/or develop complementary resources in order to be able to compete on this market. In this work in progress paper, we put emphasis on the acquisition strategy of Google --

WiFi Hot Spot Service Business for the Automotive and Oil Industries: A Competitive Analysis

While you refuel for gas, why not refuel for information or upload vehicle data, using a cheap wireless technology as WiFi? This paper analyzes in extensive detail the user segmentation by vehicle usage, service offering, and full business models from WiFi hot spot services delivered to and from vehicles (private, professional, public) around gas stations. Are also analyzed the parties which play a role in such services: authorization, provisioning and delivery, with all the dependencies modelled by attributed digraphs. Account is made of WiFi base station technical capabilities and costs. Five year financial models (CAPEX, OPEX), and data pertain to two possible service suppliers: multi-service oil companies, and mobile service operators (or MVNOs). Model optimization on the return-on-investment (R.O.I.) is carried out for different deployment scenarios, geographical coverage assumptions, as well as tariff structures. Comparison is also being made with public GPRS and 3G data services, as precursors to HSPA/LTE, and the effect of WiFi roaming is analyzed. Regulatory implications, including those dealing with public safety, are addressed. Analysis shows that due to manpower costs and marketing costs, suitable R.O.I. will not be achieved unless externalities are accounted for and innovative tariff structures are introduced. Open issues and further research are outlined. Further work is currently carried out with automotive electronics sector, wireless systems providers, wireless terminals platform suppliers, and vehicle manufacturers. Future relevance of this work is also discussed for the emerging electrical reloading grids for electrical vehicles.WiFi, Fuel Stations, Business Models, Oil Company, Mobile Operator, WiFi Services, Regulations, Professional Vehicles

The Future of the Internet III

Presents survey results on technology experts' predictions on the Internet's social, political, and economic impact as of 2020, including its effects on integrity and tolerance, intellectual property law, and the division between personal and work lives

Next Generation intelligent transport systems: a multidimensional framework for eCall implementation

The present use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) can be defined as a hybrid between information and communication technologies to improve different aspects of mobility and transport. The potential value of the next generation ITS can be assessed as an integrated array of services satisfying customer preferences, optimising policy objectives and generating business revenues. Based on industry interviews, the analysis of a traffic information service and an 'emergency call' service permitted the multidimensional appreciation of deployment scenarios of these next generation Intelligent Transport Systems. The implementation of an on-board emergency call (eCall) is an ITS service which has already been deployed in different countries. Several private and public initiatives have already resulted into preliminary and purely private eCall services, mainly proprietary to the car industry, each with different underlying revenue and cost models. On the European level, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) instigated on the national enactment to implement a standardised eCall system. The research question involved in this paper is whether the specified ecosystem for the Belgian case confirms that all stakeholders have a particular interest in the effectuation of eCall. The findings are the result of a case study performed within the Flemish IBBT research project NextGenITS. --