The search for enablers of continued growth of SMS traffic, as well as
the take-off of the more diversified MMS message contents, open up for
enterprises the potential of bulk use of mobile messaging , instead of
essentially one-by-one use. In parallel, such enterprises or value
added services needing mobile messaging in bulk - for spot use or for
use over a prescribed period of time - want to minimize total
acquisition costs, from a set of technically approved providers of
messaging capacity.
This leads naturally to the evaluation of auctioning for bulk SMS or
MMS messaging capacity, with the intrinsic advantages therein such as
reduction in acquisition costs, allocation efficiency, and optimality.
The paper shows, with extensive results as evidence from simulations
carried out in the Rotterdam School of Management e-Auction room, how
multi-attribute reverse auctions perform for the enterprise-buyer, as
well as for the messaging capacity-sellers. We compare 1- and 5-round
auctions, to show the learning effect and the benefits thereof to the
various parties. The sensitivity will be reported to changes in the
enterprise's and the capacity providers utilities and priorities
between message attributes (such as price, size, security, and
delivery delay). At the organizational level, the paper also considers
alternate organizational deployment schemes and properties for an
off-line or spot bulk messaging capacity market, subject to technical
and regulatory constraints