The status of the mobile phone number as general purpose identifier – elaboration on cases from Norway and Pakistan

This paper discusses the mobile number's status as a general purpose identifier in digital customer journeys. The strength and availability of the mobile number as ID is assessed across several markets and examples of use are given. Two cases where the mobile number already is a trusted resource and installed base are presented. Strength and availability for the mobile number as ID varies across markets depending on ID requirements for SIM-cards and the local ecosystem: some markets score high, others low. The cases discussed are Norway and Pakistan. They are respectively a developed and developing economy however; both demonstrate a strong and available mobile number and innovative uses in digital customer journeys. This signals on the one hand a potential universal applicability of the mobile number across markets with very different prerequisites, on the other hand that use of the mobile number is a local phenomenon only. The analysis indicates that across markets there is an ongoing and continuous management of both mobile numbers and other IDs in order to affect strength and availability, to reach a sufficient installed base, and position as an attractive resource for digital customer journeys

Analysing standardisation processes as technology trajectories in the mobile ecosystem: Implications for competition and innovation

The traditional mobile industry expresses worries for the future due to converging technologies and new actors. Standards are the foundation for convergence, and have been central in all current subsectors of the mobile industry. However, subsectors have developed different technological knowledge, routines and path dependencies in their standardisation processes and can be understood as different technology trajectories within the same technology paradigm. The research question in this comparative case study is: What are characteristics, differences and similarities of important standardisation processes in the mobile telecommunication ecosystem? The systematic comparison suggests that the technology trajectories 3GPP and ETSI neither are able to spur necessary innovation in the wider ecosystem, nor to ensure satisfying profit. IETF and 3WC spur innovation through an extensive accessibility to standards, but appropriability conditions are challenging. It is private platforms such as Google and Apple that seem handle both aspects: to enable innovation and adoption by making technology elements public through extension markets, and simultaneously ensure profit by keeping technology private. This research contributes by clarifying how the tension between private and public goods is played out in major technology trajectories in the mobile telecommunication sector; especially helpful is the distinction between standard openness and extension markets as different means for making technology public. The four concepts developed for assessing the status of standardization processes can be used for structuring discussions on the issue, and for future analyses of technology innovations in the telecommunication sector

Understanding Platform Emergence and Openness in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry Using Platform Ecosystem and Technological Innovation Systems Perspectives

I dag står verden overfor store digitaliseringsutfordringer og -muligheter. Så langt har noen digitale plattformer vokst fram og blitt dominerende, slik som Google og Facebook. Disse har etablert mer eller mindre åpne teknologiske grensesnitt og lar andre aktører integrere plattformens teknologier og tjenester i nye innovasjoner. Sammen blir plattformen og de andre aktørene ofte kalt et økosystem. Hallingby tar i bruk kjente konsepter fra innovasjonsfeltet og case fra telekommunikasjonsindustrien for å vise at plattformenes framvekst handler om mer enn åpne teknologiske grensesnitt. I stedet vektlegger hun at flere ulike typer av selvforsterkende krefter driver framveksten. Disse prosessene finner sted mellom mange ulike aktører og institusjoner og er knyttet til kunnskapsbygging og legitimitet, men også integrering i samfunnets eksisterende digitale systemer. Likeså utvider Hallingby vår forståelse av åpne teknologiske grensesnitt ved å inkludere betydningen av enkelhet og tillit ved tilegnelse og bruk av kunnskap om plattformens muligheter og grensesnitt. Dette handler også om å legge til rette for eksperimentering og at en plattform skaper og deler forventinger om fortjeneste. Hallingby viser for eksempel til at digitale plattformers evangelisering og bygging av sosiale felleskap er viktige redskap for å dele kompetanse og etablere legitimitet. Ved å gjenbruke kunnskap om teknologiske innovasjonssystemer for å forklare framveksten av plattformer gir Hallingby nye verktøy til markedsaktører og myndigheter. En aktør som ønsker å bli en attraktiv plattform må følge med på vekstens retning og kraft for å sette inn forsterkende tiltak; videre må plattformen praktisere åpenhet langt utover de teknologiske grensesnittene. Også brukerne av plattformer kan bedre formulere sine krav til plattformers kunnskapsdeling, innsyn, forutsigbarhet og tilrettelegging for utprøving og eksperimentering. Myndigheter kan følge opp plattformers utvikling og søke både å dempe og fremme selvforsterkende krefter og stille mer presise krav til plattformers åpenhet

Key success factors for a growing technology innovation system based on SMS Application-to-Person in Norway

The case of SMS Application-to-Person in Norway documents how SMS has re-emerged as a significant channel for customer dialogue: SMS is increasingly used for everything from dentist appointments to communicating with tax authorities. The Technology Innovation Systems perspective is the basis for an assessment of inducement mechanisms for the case, and thus the critical success factors. More specifically, the case serves as an example of a platform-based business ecosystem where the ownership of the platform is shared and a core resource is provided by the mobile network operators. It is shown how the current growth of the SMS channel is founded on collective action in the system, and how the subsequent legitimation process has aligned the SMS channel with user expectations and practices. The actors’ ability to collaborate and strike a balance between developing and sharing the market has been critical. The final version of this research has been published in Technology Analysis and Strategic Management. © 2016 Taylor & Franci

Achieving Payoffs from an Industry Cloud Ecosystem at BankID

BankID is an industry cloud owned by Norwegian banks. It provides electronic identity, authentication and electronic signing capabilities for banking, merchant and government services. More than 60% of the population uses BankID services. As the broader ecosystem around BankID evolved, challenges - arising from tensions between different parts of the ecosystem - had to be resolved. The four lessons learned from the BankID case will help others to build an industry cloud and establish a healthy ecosystem to service a broad user base.Click here for podcast summary (mp3)Click here for free 2-page executive summary (pdf)Click here for free presentation slides (pptx

Convergence in action: A case study of the Norwegian Internet

The conceptual framework for understanding the logical Internet is based on the construction of a horizontal, layered architecture, which differentiates between physical-, data link-, network-, transport-, and application layers (Woodard and Baldwin, 2008). This is different from the telecommunication networks model where a new service traditionally used to require new network architecture to be established (Yoo, 2012). However, the digitalization of services and products offered over the telecom infrastructure allows us to observe an emergent phenomenon of increased vertical integration on the Internet as well as the creation of further service specialization opportunities for telecom operators and users (Liebenau et al., 2011). We propose in this paper that this development and change in the way services are provided, leads to a new type of Internet – an addition to the current best effort Internet. We illustrate our proposition by presenting the case study of the Internet in Norway, analysing 166 of the approximately 40.000 independent AS numbers registered worldwide as catering for end-to-end services. The paper categorizes the Norwegian AS numbers according to size and type of services. Through our analyses two major groups of actors can be identified, each of them seeking to gain strategic advantage from the current Internet traffic growth: (1) Content providers and hosts seek to have a highly reliable network access with a minimal set of traffic or transmission costs. One action is to acquire AS numbers and use settlement-free peering agreements for distribution of their traffic, which is possible in traffic exchange regimes rooted in symmetry, slowly becoming asymmetric; (2) Internet access providers (IAPs) seek to take control over incoming traffic growth by hosting content within their own network and thereby to rebalance traffic and create new revenue streams with content hosting and premium end-to-end connection on-net. Our findings support the hypothesis that Internet is becoming both more vertically integrated and converged, and more specialized or modularized (Clark et al., 2004)

Regulatory policies in relation to metrics and data collection for measuring the emergent Internet

The Internet is currently undergoing a major process of change and transformation. It is moving away from a basic model of layered architecture to a modular architecture with integrated provisioning of digital services and products to users (Garud, Kumaraswamy et al. 2003; Clark 2004; Fransman, 2010 and Yoo 2010). Furthermore traffic volumes and asymmetry of traffic information available for analysis makes it difficult to gain a full overview of and understand these changes (Hallingby et al, 2012 and Liebenau et al, 2012). Hence studying Internet as a whole is difficult, and there are many issues with data collection, with the academic and commercial literature providing plenty of references to such problems. The analysis is made even more complicated when trying to address medium and long-term sustainability of the telecom and Internet industries (Yoo, 2012). Value creation and capturing is a growing challenge to Internet ecosystem stakeholders, seeking to re-innovate a sustainable system. Hence the emergent Internet also changes the actions of national and regional regulators. Regulators are normative acting on behalf of consumers and ensuring adequate investments in society critical infrastructure (FCC, 2011). Their goals are to provide mediation using competition laws and rules as the recent French case Cogent vs. France Telecom shows (ARCEP, 2012b). This is particularly due to fast convergence of Internet and telecom. The transforming state of Internet has led many regulators around the world to make efforts to collect data for such regulatory purposes but with variable degree of success. Thus measuring Internet remains a huge challenge, and we will suggest some ways forward in this paper. Norway is a relatively small country “in the world of the emergent Internet” (Hallingby and Erdal, 2011). However the size and other aspects of the Nordic culture (e.g. openness to accountability, sense of community at all levels of society, etc.) have created an environment in which the national regulator (NPT) has multiple sources of data (NPT, 2012b), and also with correlated Internet data that are collected by diverse institutions. This has resulted in a clear and well explained ability to describe the Norwegian Internet (Hallingby and Erdal, 2011). There is also a culture of regulatory pro-active engagement with changes to the earliest emerging of issues e.g. CDNs legal forms (NPT, 2012a). This article discusses possible type of metrics required to explain the link between Internet network measures and Internet economic variables. First of all we are describing the emerging Internet in Norway, also indicating a more generic change supporting the modularity observed elsewhere. Second, and more important for the purpose of this article, we believe the metrics displayed are very valuable to companies, users, regulators and any other stakeholders. Specifically, we show the case of Norway as an example of the type of knowledge that may be developed, how these mappings can be performed, the scope and limitations of such methodology, and how it can be used by regulatory authorities to monitor but not obstruct the development of business activities. Finally, we also review the usefulness of this type of measurement in the context of a recent regulatory analysis of CDNs in Norway

Succeeding with contactless service innovations - strategic recommendations based on a comparative analysis of mobile business ecosystems in Norway

Contactless communication technology in mobile phones (e.g., near field communication) has a potential to simplify our everyday life by enabling services like mobile payment, ticketing and information sharing services. The recommendations in this paper are based on a comparative case study of previous mobile service ecosystems used in Norway. The findings of this study add insights into key success factors for the mobile network operator during the different business ecosystem evolutionary stages. The recommendations include the fact that mobile network operators can succeed in kick-starting contactless mobile payment services by taking a role as a trusted service manager, focusing on establishing the ecosystem and contactless payment service together with partners in the bank sector. Furthermore, in an expansion phase the mobile network operator must open up for collaboration and connect with a portfolio of aggregators, merchants and third party niche players offering secure and high quality services and applications