Showing papers on "Telecom infrastructure sharing published in 2008"

Telecommunication Services and Economic Growth: Evidence from India

Abstract: This paper estimates the contribution of telecommunication (or telecom) services to aggregate economic growth in India. Estimated contribution is distinguished between public and private sectors to highlight the impact of telecom privatization on economic growth. Knowledge of policy determinants of demand of telecom services is shown to be essential to enhance growth contribution of telecom services. Using a recent sample survey data from Karnataka State in South India, price and income determinants of demand for telecom services are estimated by capacity of telephone exchanges Estimation results offer evidence for significant negative own price elasticity and positive income elasticity of demand for telecom services. In addition, survey data are used to show for non-economic factors that influence demand for telecom services including non-awareness of the usage and cost of value added services. These results have implications for design of a national policy for promotion of demand for telecom services and economic growth.

Optimal Number of Mobile Service Providers in India: Trade-Off between Efficiency and Competition

Abstract: With 225 million subscribers, India has the world’s third largest mobile subscriber base in the world. The Indian mobile industry is also one of the most competitive in the world with 4-7 operators in each service area. A large number of operators bring competition and its associated benefits such as decrease in price and hence corresponding growth of the market. On the other hand in the presence of economies of scale, too many operators may result in inefficient scales and high unit costs. This article analyses the trade-off between competition and economies of scale by estimating the production function for mobile subscribers and traffic carried. Analysis of panel data reveals the existence of economies of scale in the Indian mobile sector. We then derive an upper bound on the optimal number of operators in each license area and discuss policy implications.

Telecom Regulatory & Policy Environment in Pakistan: Results of the 2008 TRE Survey

Abstract: Pakistan is the world’s third fastest growing telecommunications market, adding on an average two million cellular subscribers per month, following India which is the world’s fastest growing mobile services market, adding on an average more than 8 million subscribers per month. However, Pakistan as of June 2008 had a total of 58.9% access paths/100 people compared to 29.08 in India. The South Asian region as whole offers a fertile ground for the growth of telecommunications. The telecom infrastructure in Pakistan is improving dramatically with foreign and domestic investments in the fixed-line and mobile networks. The mobile subscriber base has skyrocketed, reaching 88 million in June 2008, up from only about 300,000 in 2000, 12.7 million in 2005 and 34.5 million in 2006. Optical fibre systems are being constructed throughout the country to aid the growth of network. Today network coverage is available to almost 90% of the total population. Tariffs have been driven down to one of the lowest levels in the world. Driven by lowest tariffs, maximum coverage, and relatively better quality the Pakistan mobile market has maintained rapid growth. The mobile market is now working on sustaining the boom that hit Pakistan 2 years back and is now working on adding Value Added Services to increase customer satisfaction. The telecom sector as a whole grew by 80% during the year 2007 compared to the average growth rate of 100% in the pervious four years. The TRE survey measures informed stakeholders’ perceptions about the regulatory and policy environment with regard to the telecom sector in a given country. The current (2008) TRE survey is the second in a series. The first survey was conducted in July 2006 by LIRNEasia in five emerging Asian countries, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines using six dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services, for the fixed and mobile sectors. In the 2008 survey, a seventh dimension dealing with the “quality of service” was added, and the survey was conducted for the broadband sector in addition to fixed and mobile sectors, in 8 countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Analyzing Growth of Cellular Telecom Sector and Understanding Consumer's Preferences and Choices on the Use of Cellphone

Abstract: The Indian telecom sector has emerged as the fastest growing telecom market in the world. With more affordable services, increased penetration and a supportive government along with regular fall in tariffs in the sector has brought significant changes in number of consumers and usage of cellular telecom services. However, with galloping achievements, there are few challenges too, to be overcome by the Indian telecom industry to ride high on the next growth wave. Among the fastest growing sector of the economy the Indian telecom sector continued to maintain its growth during the year as one of the key sectors responsible for the economy's impressive performance. The sector has been growing in the range of 20 to 40 percent during the last three years (2002-05). The telecom sector is getting more sops from the government, which will help it in growing faster more to align with objective of achieving the goal of reaching 250 million subscribers and a tele-density of 22% by 2007, reducing urban and rural disparities.

Integrating E-services with a Telecommunication E-commerce using Service-Oriented Architecture

Abstract: In the past, electronic commerce only focused on customer-to-business web interaction and on business-tobusiness web interaction. With the emergence of business process management and of service-oriented architecture, the focus has shifted to the development of e-services that integrate business processes and that diversify functionalities available to customers. The potential of electronic commerce and its information technology also has attracted some telecommunication corporations—for example, Chunghwa Telecom, Singtel Telecom, and AT&T. They have built their electronic commerce environment on the Internet, too. Most of these worldwide telecom corporations have many kinds of operations support systems in their backend environment. In the past, enterprises had to integrate their telecom services manually, so that they could work together. However, this integration required considerable time and cost, and it worked only for the specific services that were manually linked. Adding additional services required even more effort. And then, enterprise application integration (EAI) solved these kinds of problems by working via point-to-point interfaces. In this paper, we present a research framework to describe the method. Then, we use two illustrations to explain the generality of our method, and we focus on how international telecom corporations have become concerned with the agility, the leanness, and the integration underlying electronic services (e-services) integration with enterprise application interface technology.

Optimal deployment of power reserves across telecom critical infrastructures

Abstract: Two of the fundamental critical national infrastructures, upon which all others rely heavily, are power and telecom. Emergency services, banking and finance, water, agriculture and food, the chemical industry, defense industrial base, public health, and government cannot run effectively without them for any sustained period of time. As a key infrastructure, central to all others, understanding and modeling the risk due to communications disruption is a high priority in order to enhance public safety and infrastructure resiliency. This paper presents an optimization model for deploying backup generator power within next-generation networks, which are deployed in an increasingly mobile, multi-service, and multi-vendor environment. It also examines how power reserves might be optimally deployed in the mobile telecom infrastructure during power disruptions or blackouts, in order to minimize the cascading of disruptions in the power infrastructure into the wider communications infrastructure. We will describe an example development of these coupled infrastructure models and their application to the analysis of a power disruption or blackout across a metropolitan area.

eTOM and e-services based trouble-management operations: a large scale telecom case study

Abstract: This research presents an e-service process model for trouble-management operations in a large scale telecom corporation. The model meets the problem-handling readiness of Enhanced Telecom Operations Map. In the past, trouble-management operations in telecommunications provided passive information to clients and lacked real-time active information for customers. Hence, for this study, we have considered composite services to realise our proposal and have tried to use web service techniques to implement a new generation of trouble-management operations in telecom corporations. There are several stages to this research. Finally, this research compares functionalities and performance between legacy and new generation of trouble-management operations.

Pricing Strategy, Profit Sharing, and Market Structure in Digital Music Contents Industry

Abstract: This paper analyze the fee structures of digital music contents and the revenue sharing ratios that are now on-going debates in Korean digital contents industry. Especially we consider Korean situation where copyrighters and telecom companies have conflict of interest. We found two major results. First, the choice between the flat rate scheme and the usage-based rate scheme is not important to telecom companies and copyrighters. The important thing is that copyrighters should decide the revenue sharing ratio and given that telecom companies should decide the retail price. Consequently, this way can lead to win-win solutions between them. Second, the flat rate scheme affects the relationship between consumers and telecom companies. Under the flat rate scheme, telecom companies have more benefits than consumers. In the vertical integrated structure, particularly, this tendency is more severe.

E-procurement of telecom services for the public sector

Abstract: E-procurement has hitherto mostly been used as a tool to make the procurement process more efficient. However, it could also be used in more explorative ways than just for digitalisation of the existing procurement process. E-procurement has a big potential when used in more innovative ways. This paper explores the conditions and possibilities in order to apply the tool of e-procurement of telecom services for the public sector. Almost every economic activity and many a social contact include the use of telecommunications. The public sector is especially depending on well functioning telecom, as telecom is a base for many services provided by the authorities. To use electronic tools for procurement of telecom could be of great help. To do so, it is of great value to have a structured, modular and scalable model with standardised interfaces and defined functions on individual and organisational levels.

WIMS 2.0: Enabling Telecom Networks Assets in the Future Internet of Services

Abstract: WIMS 2.0 initiative, focalized on convergence of telecom networks with web 2.0, provides mechanisms to offer the unique telecom service assets as part of the future Internet of Services. To achieve this, WIMS 2.0 technological foundation lays on the Open APIs concept: a so-called Telecom Exposure Layer at the operator network provides interfaces to easily integrate telecom capabilities with Internet services. Not withstanding, WIMS 2.0 includes other strategies: the telecom Portable Service Elements, providing a widget-based penetration of personal communication services into the Internet loom of services; the telecom-boosted User Generated Content publication and distribution, exploiting telecom services potential to produce UGC in real-time; and the Thin Clients, providing virtual terminal representations, ubiquitously accessible from any point of the Internet. WIMS 2.0 provides a mid-term view for the immediate evolution towards the future Internet of Services from a telecom-convergent view.

Telecom Regulatory and Policy Environment in the Maldives Results and Analysis of the 2008 TRE Survey

Abstract: The Maldivian telecom sector has gone through partial liberalization in the mobile and broadband sectors in the past few years The incumbent Dhiraagu (a joint venture between the government of Maldives and Cable & Wireless of the UK) faces competition from the newcomers Wataniya in the mobile sector and Focus Infocom in the broadband sector The fixed sector is a monopoly, but Dhiraagu’s exclusivity is scheduled to end in 2008 The 2008 Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) survey asked informed stakeholders of the Maldivian telecom sector to assess the regulatory and policy environment along 7 dimensions (market entry, access to scarce resources, interconnection, tariff regulation, universal service obligations, regulation of anti-competitive practices and quality of service regulation) for the three (sub) sectors of telecom (fixed, mobile and broadband) , on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 being highly unsatisfactory, 5 being highly satisfactory, with 3 being considered average) The respondents were selected from 3 categories: those directly impacted by policy and regulatory actions of the government (operators, equipment vendors), those who broadly follow the sector (consultants, lawyers) and those who represent the public interest in the telecom sector (consumer groups, other government officials, journalists, etc)

Spectrum and Infrastructure Sharing in Wireless Mobile Networks: Advantages and Risks

Abstract: In recent time the spectrum and infrastructure sharing hasbeen gaining more and more on importance due to high spectrumlicense costs and expensive infrastructure needed formodem high-bandwidth wireless communications. In this paperthe advantages and disadvantages of spectrum and infrastructuresharing by analytical models and simulations are analyzed.Results show that operators could significantly reducetheir costs, increase capacity and improve network quality bysharing their infrastructure and spectrum. Using Game Theoryit is shown how operators could 'protect themselves' againstnon-cooperative behaviour of other operators.

Process of Public Procurement of Telecom Services : the Buyer’s Perspective

Abstract: This paper investigates the process of public procurement of telecom, one important prerequisite for a well functioning public sector. The investigation is based on three public procurements of tel ...

A study of data quality issues in mobile telecom operators

Abstract: Telecommunication operators currently servicing mobile users world-wide have dramatically increased in the last few years Although most of the operators use similar technologies and equipment provided by world leaders in the field such as Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, Motorola, etc, it can be observed that many vendors utilize propriety methods and processes for maintaining network status and collecting statistical data for detailed monitoring of network elements This data forms their competitive differentiation and hence is extremely valuable for the organization However, in this paper we will demonstrate through a case study based on a GSM operator in Iran, how this mission critical data can be fraught with serious data quality problems, leading to diminished capacity to take appropriate action and ultimately achieve customer satisfaction We will further present a taxonomy of data quality problems derived from the case study A breif survey of reported literature on data quality is presented in the context of the taxonomy, which can not only be utilized as a framework to classify and understand data quality problems in the telecommunication domain but can also be used for other domains with similar information systems landscapes

To eat or to be eaten–on the role of entrepreneurship in the Norwegian telecom access sector

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse mechanisms of evolution by studying a population of firms involved in the provision of telecom access in Norway after the liberation of the telecom sector during the 1990s. The approach is based on a combination of theory on entrepreneurship and theories on sectoral innovation systems, in particular the role of entrepreneurship under different technological regimes. By analysing the role of different actors in the market for telecom access, the relationship between the previous state monopolist Telenor and other companies entering the market is discussed. The main conclusion is that Telenor, in spite of the liberalization of the telecom market, still is in a very dominant position in the markets for access provision. To the extent that Telenor is challenged, it is basically by other existing telecom companies. By the time of finalizing this paper (2006), none of the entrepreneurial firms have survived as independent firms. The main conclusion deriving from this anal...

Disintegration and Future Telecom Markets

Abstract: Telecom world is changing rapidly. Traditional telecom companies used to be vertically integrated based on silo approach. Internet Protocol (IP) has revolutionized the telecom network providing uniform interface and a separation between infrastructure and services. Next Generation Networks are built around this separation. In these networks service creation will be independent of the infrastructure making it fast and economical. Technological advances are forcing disintegration of telecom companies at vertical level and integration at horizontal level. Telecom market is evolving towards a collection of companies working in different segments of the value chain. Service market is going to fall apart from the infrastructure segment. Such a service market will not only be feasible but also economically efficient. The future is a service market with more focused niche players doing business in a completely competitive manner and an access market having limited players.

Low-cost data communication network for rural telecom network management

Abstract: The backbone networking infrastructure of rural telecom networks is often costly and is of limited bandwidth The availability of connectivity such as DSL or leased lines is scarce In order to keep operational costs low, these rural telecom networks are often kept unmanned and are managed from a centralized network management station (NMS) This often requires a low-cost, efficient and reliable data communication network (DCN) between the rural telecom equipment and the central NMS The conventional DCN used for telecom management consists either of leased lines or Internet connectivity These are often costly and not freely available in rural areas We have developed a new DCN model, based on dial-up, which is easily available Using mathematical models and measurements we show that this DCN meets the QoS requirements of a telecom network at an affordable cost We have implemented this DCN in corDECT networks This is in use in India and Tunisia, and is under implementation in other similar countries

The K-Net broadband deployment model: Enabling Canadian Aboriginal community control of telecom infrastructure through relationship building and heterogeneous engineering

Abstract: This paper outlines a model for broadband community networking developed by the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Tribal Council of Northwestern Ontario. The model specifically addresses the telecom and information service needs of remote Aboriginal communities in telco high cost serving areas. It advances Aboriginal property rights and local control over infrastructure amidst (necessary) transactions with public and private firms for the deployment of network assets and overlying telecom and information services. Two organizational competences are postulated in this paper to help explain the development and operationalization of K-Netpsilas broadband deployment model. These are relationship building and heterogeneous engineering. This paper draws from research conducted under the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking.

Brasil Telecom: The Briefing of a Case on Telecom Regulation in Emerging Markets

Abstract: In 2005, the telecom regulator in Brazil asked incumbents to undertake the account separation and cost modeling. The goal was allowing the regulator to set prices based on an assessment of incumbents finance and physical data, especially the definition of cost-based prices at the wholesale market (interconnection, leased lines and unbundling prices) and the measurement of productivity to define X-factor applied to the retail tariffs in the price cap readjustment.

Network Planning for Telecom and Utilities

Abstract: For network centric businesses such as telecommunication providers and utilities, networks form the core of their business and comprise a very expensive asset that needs careful management to fulfil both present and future requirements of customers. Correctly planning and designing the network is essential to the success of such businesses. The network planning and design process can involve planning and design at different levels of detail from high level strategic or business planning through to low level detailed planning and design. Network planning and design forms part of a wider provisioning process encompassing order handling, job tracking, network design and configuration through to order fulfilment and billing. This chapter focuses on the network planning and design process together with a brief examination of the opportunities provided through use of network optimisation techniques therein improving upon results obtained through use of manual techniques alone.

Towards Evidence Based ICT Policy: Access & Usage in 17 African Countries

Abstract: Meeting: Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Performance, ENTS, 16-17 October 2008, Paris

Avoiding power & cooling system disasters at Telecom New Zealand through structured risk management

Abstract: Engineering services infrastructure is critical to the operation of modern telecommunications buildings. These buildings have become ever more complex, the most complex house multiple networks and multiple supporting systems that have grown quickly in response to demand from network, this has led to a situation where individual systems have been considered separately without evaluation of impacts on other building uses. Previously regular changes in Network Technology ensured that systems were tidied up and any redundant capacity that had been consumed due to growth was reinstated. The current NEAX PSTN network has been operating for more than 20 years and the migration to the future NGN technology is not expected to be completed before 2012, therefore this long technology lifecycle adds to the quantum of risk at Telecom New Zealand (Telecom) sites. This paper outlines the results achieved from a structured risk management programme of Telecom's major sites.

Web Services Communication Model in Telecom Domain

Abstract: Inspired by the success of Web service technologies for the development and deployment of IT services, the telecommunications R&D community starts adapting and developing similar service delivery platforms to catch the dynamic changing in Telecom market. In this paper, we propose a Web services communication model considering the specific features as asynchronous, event-driven communications in Telecom domain. We also introduce the details for Telecom Web services communication model implementation, such as Web services accessibility for telecom capabilities, the enhanced state machine designing for Telecom Web services, and the messages dispatching for Telecom Web service, and also illustrate the third party call control scenarios with the Telecom Web service communication model. Finally, we give the conclusion and future essential work.

The Selling Process to the Public Sector

Abstract: This thesis describes and analyses public procurement and its processes in general against the framework of industrial marketing and purchasing. In particular, it focuses on the public procurement of telecommunications (“telecom”) and its effects on the de-monopolization and development of the Swedish telecom market based on empirical material from three case studies, interviews and publicly available written sources.Public procurement is a significant part of any country’s economy. There is a plenitude of publicly available data due to Sweden’s and other public administrations’ transparency policies. Despite this fact, public procurement has been poorly covered in business administration literature when compared with the private sector’s purchasing and selling activities. This thesis tries to bridge the theoretical gap between knowledge of purchasing in business-to-business (“B2B”) and public procurement.Public procurement can be considered as a special type of B2B transaction and, particularly in the case of bigger procurements, of project purchasing. The important difference is that public procurement must follow specific and stricter legislation compared with the private sector’s purchasing activities. Among other things, public procurement law restricts contact between the procuring organisation and tenderers in some phases of the procurement process, allows no changes after the publishing of the Request for Proposal and opens the possibility to appeal to the court if any party considers that the procuring organisation has not acted in accordance with the public procurement rules.The telecom market has, over a period of thirty years, been transformed from a monopoly with practically no choice to a fully competitive market with several service and equipment providers as well as different pricing schemes and competing technical solutions. The development of the Swedish telecom market can be divided into four stages: Full monopoly, partial de-monopolization, full competition and system integration. The main driving forces behind this development have been the political decision to liberate the telecom market and achieve full competition as well as rapid and diverse technical development, which includes the introduction of mobile communication, broadband and Internet.At the same time, the dependency on well functioning telecom in the public sector is constantly increasing due to political agendas such as agencies availability 24 hours 365 days (“24/7 agency”), use of telecom as a means of rationalization and increased internal efficiency as well as new usages in areas that previously were not using telecom in their daily routines. The public procurement of telecom has changed from being a relatively simple administrative issue through being of technical concern to becoming more and more of strategic importance, especially in case of outsourcing and/or procuring system integration from a prime contractor.

Organizational Change: A Case Study on Anhui Telecom Company

Abstract: In order to deal with the challenge due to aggravated market competition and development of information technology, China Telecom Co., Ltd. (China Telecom) has proposed the strategy for transition from a fixed network operator to an integrated information service provider, as a company subordinate to China Telecom, Anhui Telecom Company (Anhui Telecom) has made an active response and made corresponding organizational change. In this paper an analysis is made on the organizational change of Anhui Telecom and its effect using the dynamic capability theory and the view of high-performance system to work out the conceptual model for organizational change of Anhui Telecom. The results show that the organizational change of Anhui Telecom has enhanced the vigor of the organization and employees by stimulating dynamic capabilities and forming a high performance system, promoted the organizational capabilities, thus maintaining its sustainable competitive advantage. The organizational change in Anhui Telecom has significant reference for the business transformation of China Telecom.

Strategy for Telecom Operators to Get Maximum Benefit from Fiber Deployment and NGNs

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a strategy for the present day telecom operators to operate efficiently in the rapidly transforming telecom world. The evolution of NGN and deployment of fiber is changing the whole buildup of telecom markets. This paper intends to observe the effects of fiber deployment and NGN on market structure and propose strategy for telecom operators to cope with new market structure.Fiber deployment increases the economy of scale for bandwidth which increases the production cost difference. Basic transaction cost model presented by Williamson is extended to observe the effects of aforementioned factors to the organization structure of telecommunication firms. It has been observed that all effects favor market procurement to internal supply. Hence future telecommunication markets will be gradually divided into two groups. One group will consist of bandwidth providers and the other will consist of service providers. BT has initiated a comprehensive fiber deployment and NGN plan called 21CN as a result of which it has started selling bandwidth to other telecommunication operators. BT wholesale is working as a separate department earning huge revenues in the sale of bandwidth to other operators.Almost all Asian countries had a state owned telecom company before introducing competition. These companies face the same challenge of restructuring their organizations. To get maximum economies of scale from fiber deployment, they have to restructure themselves and disintegrate in access and service companies. Only in this way these companies will be able to sustain efficiently in present competitive telecom markets.

Conditions contributing to the success of the Japanese telecom policy over the past five decades

Abstract: The Japanese telecom market is presently one of the most advanced and dynamic in the world. This is the result of carefully planned development in Japanese telecom policies that have taken advantage of the external conditions of the times in Japan over the past 50 years or more. This article aims to clarify the contributing conditions based on the decades of experience in Japanese telecom policies and to determine the cross-country applicability of these policies. Based on the overall economic and market conditions during this period and considering the development of the Japanese telecom market to date, a set of contributing conditions are proposed. Statistical verifications for the general applicability of such conditions revealed that some hold true in the sampled Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations. The most important finding is that the market dominance of the incumbent operator has a significant impact on basic telecom development. Another part of the findings showed conformity with the “digital divide” between rich and poor nations.brJEL classification: L96, L98, O33

Design and Implementation of Enhanced State Machine for Telecom Web Service

Abstract: Development of services that span over the Internet and telecom networks is driving significant efforts towards the integrated of services offered by telecom operators. In this paper, we design and implementation of enhance state machine for telecom Web service considering the specific characteristics state, asynchronous, events driven communications in telecom domain. We focus on the design and implementation details for the enhanced state machine design and implementation, such as the framework of enhanced state machine, the states, the events and state transition, and also illustrate the third party end call control scenarios. Finally, we give the conclusion and future essential work.