Mobile Music Business Models in Asia\u27s Emerging Markets

In the telecom business, there has been a heavy competition from Internet, media and handset vendors companies. These over-the-top (OTT) players offer compiling telecom services, cause a transformation in the telecom business ecosystem, and the most challenging services posed here are media services. China, India and Indonesia, as world’s emerging markets in Asia, are predicted to take the largest share in the global mobile traffic explosion by 2015. It is critical for mobile network operators (MNOs) in this region to explore strategy for mobile media services, as mobile broadband is likely preferred compared to fixed broadband. In this paper, we analyze and compare mobile music business models used in these markets and structure the relation models between the key actors, using Actors, Relations and Business Activities (ARA) model. We present the economic models that are emerging, and an insight of why and how these multitudes actors are betting on currently. We found that the MNOs generally have a much stronger position compared to their counterparts in the developed markets, and the personalization services, like ring-back tone, are still a huge success. The actors tend to deliver the services by their own, rather than to collaborate in a horizontal business setting

Effects of NGNs on market definition

Historically, electronic communications networks were built to support specific services. For example, fixed and mobile telephone networks were developed to support voice telephone calls, whereas cable networks, satellites, and over-the-air broadcasts were built to support television services (unidirectional linear video). However, these communications networks are currently incorporating new technology and are rapidly evolving into multi-service networks that support voice, video, and data over a single, fully integrated communications platform. NGNs provide to customer access to a large range of services, leading to the increase of the bandwidth demand - For example, if customers encounter their demand on a single network, a triple play product, the bandwidth demand for that network will increase. Moreover, the migration to NGN may require upgrades to the infrastructure to provide sufficient service quality. The entry of new competitors can be based on the resale of services from the incumbent, on building up their own infrastructures, on renting unbundled infrastructure from incumbents, or, on the combination of the above elements. The availability of these options to competitors and price definition are generally determined by regulatory policies. So, the introduction of NGNs by telecommunication network operators obligates the national regulators adapt their access regulation regimes to the new technological conditions. Regulation and/or promotion of competition by regulatory measures need to be analyzed and compared. So, in this paper we explore the role of competition policy and regulation

Techno-economic valuation of mobile communications scenarios

Valuation of large projects on new communications technologies is a challenging task. Major investments are required to spread out technology and services, the characteristics of which are still largely unknown. A balanced view is needed on capabilities of the technologies, market demand, and relevant value network actors and their economies. In this dissertation, comprehensive techno-economic modelling of these aspects will be introduced for valuation of selected business scenarios. The research framework is mobile data services and business architectures in the advent of new technologies, like UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). The techno-economic method in this context comprises the modelling of a large set of technology, market and other factors in relation to the business operations of the analysed market actors. The many uncertainties concerning future service innovations and market development set demands on scenario creation and parameter estimation. Traditional techno-economic investment project calculation is not enough. This study gives devices for strategic decision making by analysing three different technology transitions: The modelling of Western-European incumbent operator business starting from the early 2000's indicated that the UMTS deployment should be started without delay to maximise the long-term profits from the acquired licenses, contrary to looking for short-term investment payoffs that was prevalent after the telecommunications downturn. Results also show that the emerging WLAN technology would not become a substitute for UMTS, but the public WLAN will complement the UMTS based business architecture. Modelling of the upcoming mobile WiMAX in comparison to UMTS path indicated that the mobile WiMAX cannot challenge the UMTS, as the latter one offers a better business case for the key actors. In the last transition, techno-economic delta analysis was used to quantify the benefits from the fixed-mobile convergence. The main enhancements to the techno-economic method are first the extensive classification of advanced mobile services and related modelling of service diffusion, usage patterns, capacity requirements and revenues. The second contribution is to improve the analysis of service usage in relation to technology characteristics by integrating an end-user model that gives the demand and revenue potential of each service type, per user segment and utilised technology. A novelty is also the separation of network provisioning and service provisioning part of the business architecture into separate but interlinked models. The fourth contribution to the method is the application of real options method on large communications technology deployment projects, solving option modelling problems due to the complex dependencies of the project value on the investment timing. The introduced method starts from ordinary expected cash flow valuation, but adds to that the option value related to specific flexibility in the project