The Next Wave of Globalization: Relocating Service Provision to India

Europe and the global information society: Recommendations to the European council

The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the most rapidly growing sectors around the world. This book offers a comprehensive economic analysis of the main determinants of growth in the industry. Harald Gruber demonstrates the importance of competitive entry and the setting of technological standards, both of which play a central role in their contribution to the fast diffusion of technology. Detailed country studies provide empirical evidence for the development of the main themes: the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services, the pricing policies in network industries, the role of entry barriers such as radio spectrum and spectrum allocation procedures. This research-based survey will appeal to a wide range of applied industrial economists within universities, government and the industry itself.

https://bilder.buecher.de/zusatz/14/14679/14679878_vorw_1.pdf

The economics of mobile telecommunications

The emergence of software platforms and internet-like end-to-end architectures in mobile communications systems, as well as the expected breakthrough of a range of alternative wireless network technologies, are causing intense pressure on the dominant technological and business set-up in the mobile industry. A strong current in business and academic literature is arguing that the 'open and modular' internet architectures will (or should) wipe away the current 'closed and integrated' telecommunications architectures. It is often implied that, as a result, (mainly US-based) internet and IT firms are bound to make significant inroads into the telecommunications market. By contrast, others anticipate that the advantages in terms of quality and security offered by integrated telecommunications architectures will allow mobile operators to dominate the mobile internet and to capture a major share of all service revenues in this context. In this PhD thesis, it is hypothesised that there is no automatic mirroring between technical modularity and market unbundling, and that, instead of relying on any outright 'open' or 'closed' strategy, the mobile industry is increasingly bound to employ 'open but not open' platform business models, in order to combine advantages of diversity and complementarity with advantages of control and coordination. A business model is redefined as the 'architecture' of a specific business, i.e. the way in which control and value parameters are balanced within a network of collaborating firms. This approach aims to contribute to the revitalisation of the political economy of ICT (re)design, which stresses that control configurations, power relationships and different forms of bias pervade technological architectures, and that they profoundly influence the individual, societal and economic value generated through these architectures. On the basis of a range of real-life cases as well as two series of in-depth interviews with decision makers and strategists in the European mobile industry, a number of strategically viable business models are identified, and the implications for the set-up of mobile communications are outlined.

Control and Value in Mobile Communications: A Political Economy of the Reconfiguration of Business Models in the European Mobile Industry

. Drawing upon actor-network theory, this article analyses the socio-technological construction of China's strategy for the telecommunications market transformation. We define the telecommunications market as the non-human actor. The public and society, the state, and the operators constitute three groups of human actors representing the social interests in the telecommunications industry. We have observed that these actors’ interests are influenced by the situation of technology advance, the telecommunications development level, the macro reform progress and the national policies concerning the political and economic systems, and the international trend in telecommunications reforms. Owing to the dynamics of these contextual elements and the struggle of actors to inscribe their interests into the national strategy, China has transformed the telecommunications market by four stages, each stage with specific foci. Our case study demonstrates that the applications of actor-network theory can be extended to investigate the formulation of a national strategy. The research design in which the social and technological contexts are dynamically connected with strategy formulation can be drawn upon by other actor-network studies.

Using actor-network theory to analyse strategy formulation

http://lirne.net/resources/papers/PP1999-TP.pdf

Telecom reform: progress and prospects

Proposes a framework for the constructive application of 3G auctions. Suggests that other forms of auctions should be investigated, especially where the policy priority is rapid network rollout. Sums up that early experience with the 3G auctions in Europe points to several conclusions about efficient spectrum allocation and assignment.

Spectrum auctions and efficient resource allocation: learning from the 3G experiences in Europe

http://lirne.net/resources/papers/TcmMyths-TP.pdf

Telecom myths: the international revenue settlements subsidy

Introduction What is new about new media? Its development and use is more influenced by economic factors than the old media. And the new media is more central to the new economy. Indeed, an ever more popular theme in the scientific literature, government policy documents and the popular press, is that technologically advanced economies are in the process of moving beyond industrial capitalism to information-based economies. This transformation is expected to bring profound changes in the form and structure of economic, social, cultural and political systems. European Union integration is just one aspect of this restructuring of economies and societies (see Bell 1973; Melody 1985; Soete 1997).

/pdf/human-capital-in-information-economies-4g3zri3z46.pdf

William H. Melody

Papers

Telecom reform: progress and prospects

Spectrum auctions and efficient resource allocation: learning from the 3G experiences in Europe

Telecom myths: the international revenue settlements subsidy

Human Capital in Information Economies