Mobile Telecommunications Market Regulations and Carrier Performance: The Korean Case

As mobile markets in most developed countries are rapidly coming close to saturation, it is increasingly challenging to cover the cost of providing the network, as revenues are not growing. This has driven mobile operators, thus far mostly involved in facility-based competition, to turn their attention to network sharing. There exist various types of mobile network sharing (MNS), from passive to active sharing. In this paper, we propose a model, based on the supply-demand model, for evaluating the economic effects of using six types of MNS. Our study measures the economic effects of employing these six types of MNS, using actual WiBro-related data. Considering lower service price and expenditure reduction, the total economic effect from a year's worth of MNS use is estimated to be between 513 million and 689 million USD, which is equal to three to four percent of the annual revenue of Korean mobile operators. The results of this study will be used to support the establishment of a MNS policy in Korea. In addition, the results can be used as a basic model for developing various network sharing models.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Economic Effect of Mobile Network Sharing in Korea

Song¹

2012

Asymmetric Regulation of Mobile Access Charges and Consumer Welfare with Price Regulation

Lee¹,

Lee²,

Jung³

2010

Asymmetric regulation as applied to mobile termination rates refers to regulatory arrangements in which different mobile operators charge different termination rates, even though the services provided are essentially identical. The asymmetric regulation has been frequently used as a regulatory tool to support new entrants to a mobile market. This paper examines the economic effects of asymmetric regulation of mobile termination rates using a theoretical model and its simulation. The result shows that when there is no noticeable difference in brand loyalty between mobile operators with the high degree of substitutability between services provided by mobile operators, and the costs of new entrants are low, a reduction in the asymmetry of mobile access prices results in an enhancement of consumer welfare. These findings provide positive evidence for the argument that in certain situations asymmetric pricing of mobile access services may be counterproductive for consumer welfare.

Evaluating the Efficiency of Mobile Content Companies Using Data Envelopment Analysis and Principal Component Analysis

Cho¹,

Park²

2011

This paper evaluates the efficiency of mobile content firms through a hybrid approach combining data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze the relative efficiency and performance of firms and principal component analysis (PCA) to analyze data structures. We performed a DEA using the total amount of assets, operating costs, employees, and years in business as inputs, and revenue as output. We calculated fifteen combinations of DEA efficiency in the mobile content firms. We performed a PCA on the results of the fifteen DEA models, dividing the mobile content firms into those having either ‘asset‐oriented’ or ‘manpower and experience‐oriented’ efficiency. Discriminant analysis was used to validate the relationship between the efficiency models and mobile content types. This paper contributes toward the construction of a framework that combines the DEA and PCA approaches in mobile content firms for use in comprehensive measurements. Such a framework has the potential to present major factors of efficiency for sustainable management in mobile content firms and to aid in planning mobile content industry policies.