Factors affecting the growth of multimedia communications services in a network

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Asymmetric pricing and change in delivery to increase multimedia messaging service revenue

The current take-up of the multimedia messaging service (MMS) is far below that predicted when it was initially conceived. There are potentially a number of reasons, but most research has identified the high price. Factors such as asymmetric utility between sender and receiver, and uncertainty in the delivery of the MMS have not been considered. Based on real data from an Indian telecom operator we develop a model to derive the subscription and usage elasticity and show that a trade-off between sending and receiving prices, and subsidised handsets can increase MMS subscription by 200% whilst simultaneously improving revenue by 50%.asymmetric pricing; content summarisation; cost; MMS subscriptions; revenue optimisation; mobile networks; multimedia messaging service; utility; revenue maximisation; revenue management; India.

Internet pricing: a two sided market perspective

We adopt a two-sided market model to represent the interaction of internet service providers (ISP), internet users and content providers to study the optimal pricing strategy for the ISP. We allow the ISP to vary all four components of the price, that is, subscription and usage price to the internet user, and subscription and usage price to the content provider. We offer a potential business advantage to the ISP describing how the total charges can be allocated between the internet user and the content provider and how the price charged to one side can be allocated between the subscription and usage parts. Under a realistic assumption, we show that a profit maximising ISP would prefer to provide access subsidy to both the internet user and the content provider and derive profit from the usage volume.two-sided markets; ISPs; optimal pricing; world wide web; market perspectives; internet service providers; internet users; content providers; pricing strategies; price components; subscription rates; usage prices; business advantages; total charges; charge allocation; profit maximisation; access subsidies; usage volumes; economics; business research.