Inconvenience cost of mobile communication failure: The case of South Korea

Mobile communication failure can occur when mobile traffic exceeds the manageable level. This depends on frequency bandwidth. Mobile communication failure causes inconveniences in a user's daily life that lead to social and economic damage. To address this issue, mobile telecommunications companies deploy additional bandwidths and develop new technologies, but these are costly strategies. This study applies a spike model based on a contingent valuation method (CVM) to measure the inconvenience cost resulting from mobile communication failure. The mean monthly willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid communication failure per user is estimated to be KRW 898.14 (USD 0.80) over a period of five years in our study. The inconvenience cost borne by the population is estimated to be KRW 2.97 trillion (USD 2.61 billion). Users experiencing greater frequency of communication failure are found to be willing to pay more to avoid the inconvenience. When excluding respondents citing zero-WTP, the mean WTP per user was calculated to be KRW 3426.41 (USD 3.01). Data traffic usage and frequency at which communication failure is experienced are variables that exhibit statistically significant effects on WTP to avoid mobile communication failure. Overall, estimation results show that a price discrimination based on data traffic usage or quality can be considered by mobile telecommunications companies and regulators to address the issue of data traffic inducing mobile communication failure.     

Explaining geospatial variation in mobile phone ownership among rural women of Bangladesh: A multi-level and multidimensional approach

Despite significant progress in Information and communication technologies (ICTs), rural dwellers of Bangladesh are still less fortunate when it comes to availing the improved ICT facilities compared to their urban counterparts, and this digital divide is more evident in the case of women. Mobile phone ownership (MPO) can play a key role in bridging this digital divide and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, and “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. Administrative district-level infrastructural and societal readiness to women's MPO in rural settings of Bangladesh may also influence the geospatial variation in their MPO status, which is still unexplained. In the context of rural Bangladesh, household heads substantially exert influence over women's decision-making process. However, the role of household heads' age and education on women's MPO is mostly unexplored. As in developing countries, women's MPO does not ensure its usage, investigating the possibilities of women's MPO on its usage has immense importance. Therefore, this study aims to revisit the correlates of rural women's MPO in Bangladesh and explain the administrative district-level geospatial variation in their MPO by controlling the effect of individual and household-level sociodemographic correlates of MPO. Further, this study attempts to investigate the possibilities of MPO on the extent of its usage. This study used the latest nationally representative cross-sectional data from Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019. This study reveals that the district-level readiness was a potential source of geospatial variation in the prevalence of rural women's MPO in Bangladesh. The lowest level of readiness was noticed in north-western Bangladesh. Comparatively elderly women with better education and media exposure had a considerably higher chance of MPO. Elderly household heads, especially male and less educated heads, hindered the MPO of women. This study identified MPO as a key determinant of its extent of usage. Moreover, to increase the MPO by a faster pace, strategies should target less empowered women, particularly those who lived in districts of lower readiness.     

适用于Rayleigh衰落信道的一种新型MMSE接收机

智能天线中一般的MMSE接收机缺乏有效跟踪Rayleigh衰落信道变化的机制。在分析了MMSE接收机在Rayleigh信道中的特点之后，提出了一种新型的MMSE接收机。计算机仿真结果表明，此接收机性能较好，适用于Rayleigh衰落信道。     

The future of the mobile phone business

One of the fastest growing technologies of our times is that of mobile phones. In this article we use the assumption that the diffusion of mobile technology, as measured by the number of active mobile accounts, follows the well known S-curve of natural growth in competition systems. The accuracy of the logistic fit is tested against actual data for the whole world, Europe, China and the GSM system. Using the produced models predictions concerning the future of mobile business are deliberated.According to these models active mobile accounts around the globe are expected to grow from 1.7 billion in 2004 to approximately 2 billion in 2008, reaching a peak penetration of 29.2%. Growth barriers, apart from the age of the potential user, are also low income and extreme poverty. Europe, early adopter of mobile technology and leader in active mobile accounts against all other regions in the world, has apparently reached a peak with almost every European, apart from the very young or very old, using a mobile phone. The mobile market in China is anticipated to exceed 500 million active accounts and may increase even further depending on the economic and social reform that is currently under way in that part of the world. GSM will most likely remain the leading mobile technology in the future as it is today.The growth process for the world, Europe, and the GSM system is almost completed and during this stage instabilities may occur before the potential emergence of a new wave of growth.     

IP-RAN中一种新的移动性管理框架

RAN的全IP化是UMTS实现全IP架构过程的一部分。在RAN中,最重要的功能之一就是移动性管理。原有的基于ATM的移动性管理技术在全IP的RAN架构中并不适用。在分析全IP的RAN架构中对移动性管理的新的要求基础上,提出了结合MPLS技术和移动IP技术来解决移动性管理的新的开放的应用架构,并且描述了在这种应用架构下移动IP的协议过程;简要分析了这种应用架构带来的好处,提出还需要改进的地方和实现的技术难点。     

天津滨海新区房地产业发展和住房保障体系研究

住房是人的基本权利,各国政府均十分关注。住房保障是市场经济必不可少的补充,是房地产发展的重要组成部分。滨海新区人口规模的扩大、经济的高速发展对住宅需求持续增加。然而,滨海新区在房地产市场发展过程中也暴露出一些问题。本文研究了滨海新区房地产业和住房保障体系的经济背景和社会背景,剖析了深圳和浦东新区以及英国、日本、新加坡和我国香港地区的住宅经验。通过比较分析,提出完善滨海新区房地产业和住房保障体系的具体措施。     

Are mobile and fixed broadband substitutes or complements? New empirical evidence from Italy and implications for the digital divide policies

The literature on broadband policies has been focusing on the possible role of mobile broadband as a means for addressing geographical digital divide in areas with no or inadequate fixed broadband infrastructure coverage. Broadband plans designed by most of the industrialized countries take the substitutability between fixed and mobile technologies for granted, with restrictions essentially relating only to bandwidth performance. We explore the determinants of individuals' private access (away from work) to the Internet with the smartphone through a mobile broadband connection, focusing on the role played by Internet uses and taking into account the availability of a fixed broadband connection at home. The results of our econometric exercise, carried out on microdata referred to Italian individuals, provide original and interesting evidence: a complementarity effect between mobile and fixed broadband is found for browsing, video streaming, gaming and cloud services; a substitution effect emerges for social networking and music streaming. Such increasing complexity of individuals’ broadband usage patterns should be acknowledged in the way broadband coverage is mapped and policies designed, adopting a more ecosystem-oriented approach which integrates supply- and demand-side features. A first step in this direction is the inclusion of some, so far neglected, key-attributes of the demand (data traffic allowance, latency, ease of interconnection with Internet capable devices) among the relevant dimensions of policy design.     

Regulation of international roaming in the European Union—Lessons learned

This paper analyzes the evolution of prices and competition in intra-EU international roaming markets. It addresses three main research questions: (i) to what extent have market forces by themselves brought competition to retail roaming markets? (ii) Has the evolution of market dynamics in wholesale roaming improved competition? (iii) Is wholesale regulation sufficient to lead to a reduction in retail roaming prices? Data show that there has been little price-based competition both at wholesale and retail levels, despite prices being well above costs and the significant margins allowed by regulation. Available data from the period preceding the entry into force of the first EU roaming regulation also point to the same conclusion. Lack of competitive pressure in retail roaming markets and inelastic demand give little incentives for retail roaming service providers to lower prices. Wholesale international roaming markets have complex competition dynamics. They are characterized by the reciprocity of wholesale roaming agreements and traffic internalization inside transnational groups. These circumstances limit price competition at the wholesale level. The traditional regulatory approach applied to electronic communication markets has been primarily focused on wholesale regulation. However, empirical evidence shows that even if wholesale charges are reduced, retail roaming markets continue to operate at very high retail margins (for example, more than 200% retail mark-up over wholesale charges for data roaming services and incoming calls). This proves that in international roaming markets wholesale charge reductions are not necessarily passed on to retail prices. It can thus be inferred that wholesale price regulation alone is in most cases not sufficient to ensure that benefits are passed through to end users.     

Beyond the flat rate bias: The flexibility effect in tariff choice

Flat rates are a prominent pricing scheme for telecommunications services and are often preferred by consumers although average costs would be lower in an alternative usage-based tariff. Reasons are that flat rates protect against unexpectedly high costs (insurance effect), are more likely to be chosen if actual usage is overestimated (overestimation effect), and prevent any disutility that is associated with the immediate perception of marginal costs (taximeter effect). This study complements the literature on tariff biases by highlighting that a lack of tariff flexibility is a major impediment to choosing a flat rate: empirical support for this flexibility effect is found, while, at the same time, the insurance and overestimation effect that run in favor of flat rates are confirmed. Finally, the managerial implications of the findings for the introduction of the new cost cap tariff are discussed. The hybrid cost cap tariff can combine the flexibility and the insurance property, and may, therefore, exert a cost cap bias on consumers.     

Network effects and preference heterogeneity in the case of mobile telecommunications markets

This paper demonstrates how revealed- and stated-preference analyses can be used for modeling network effects in the field of mobile telecommunications. The aim of this study was to verify if network effects may still play a role in the Polish mobile telecommunications market, measure their strength, identify their sources and variability across consumers by accounting for consumers' observable and unobservable preference heterogeneity, evaluate their monetary value to consumers, and finally, to verify if the marginal utility associated with network effects is constant. The analysis of consumers' revealed choices (currently used mobile telephone operator) allowed the identification of major differences between customer bases of incumbent and new entrant operators, and insight into the business strategies adopted in the presence of asymmetric regulation of mobile termination rates. The second part of the study—the analysis of the consumers' stated choices (made in carefully prepared and designed hypothetical choice situations, known as the choice experiments) made it possible to directly model consumers' utility functions and, in this way, investigate the nature of network effects in mobile telecommunications markets. From the results, the presence of strong network effects, which are related to the ratio of consumers' social network group using the same operator, and to the magnitude of on-net price discounts, is confirmed. These network effects can be disaggregated to pecuniary and non-pecuniary effects. Through the utilization of the random parameters multinomial logit model, consumers' observable and unobservable preference heterogeneity can be accounted for, which proved a scientifically revealing and potentially policy-relevant approach. The results might be of a particular interest to other researchers aiming at modeling consumers' preferences as well as to mobile telephone operators and regulatory authorities—it is shown that capacity for vigorous price competition between mobile operators is limited by non-price factors, which affect subscriber's choices, especially in the presence of asymmetric mobile termination rates.