Fernando Beltrán

Technology and market conditions toward a new competitive landscape in the wireless access market

This article argues that the wireless telecommunication market is about to witness a shift in business models and market structure as a result of the deployment of new broadband access technologies, spectrum management techniques, policy-based network management, and the drive of new entrants to compete against the incumbents. The article discusses four agents of evolutionary changes: a range of broadband wireless access standards and technologies that are front-runners in the industrys efforts to embody the next generation of wireless networks; new provider-customer relationships facilitated through changes in the usual contract patterns that will allow consumers to enter short-term and spot contracts with the new wireless providers; an overview of the current debate on spectrum management; and an explanation of how autonomic communications and policy-based management would support the new structure. Finally, the article asserts the necessity for the integration of the heterogeneous technologies that make up this emerging, hybrid wireless landscape, and describes the economic characteristics of a new competitive scenario.

Understanding the Current Operation and Future Roles of Wireless Networks: Co-Existence, Competition and Co-Operation in the Unlicensed Spectrum Bands

Technology and policy are coming together to enable a paradigmatic change to the most widely used mechanism, exclusive rights, which allows mobile telecommunications operators to use the radio spectrum. Although spectrum sharing is not a new idea, the limited supply of spectrum and the enormous demand for mobile broadband services are forcing spectrum authorities to look more closely into a range of tools that might accelerate its adoption. This paper seeks to understand how co-existence and co-operation of Wi-Fi and cellular networks in the unlicensed spectrum can increase the overall capacity of heterogeneous wireless networks. It also reveals the challenges posed by new uses, such as machine-to-machine communications and the Internet of Things. It also brings together two major proposed regulatory approaches, such as those by the U.K.s Ofcom and the European Commission, which currently represent leading efforts to provide spectrum authorities with robust spectrum sharing frameworks, to discuss policy tools likely to be implemented.

Evaluating the Impact of Financing Structure Decisions on FTTH Deployment. A Comparison between New Zealand and Europe

The increasing demand for higher bandwidth and more reliable networks is driving the worldwide deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) networks. The paths followed to achieve this goal markedly vary, however, across different countries. This paper focuses on FTTH deployments in New-Zealand and Europe.On one side, there is the nationwide Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) investment strategy as devised by the government of New Zealand, also known as the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative, alongside an open access obligation. This contrasts sharply with some local European initiatives for NGA deployments on the other side: the publicly-owned dark fiber infrastructure provider Stokab in Stockholm (Sweden), a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) under the Market Economy Investors Principle in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and a private initiative undertaken by the incumbent in Portugal. These initiatives differ in the spectrum of public and private modes of participation in infrastructure deployment, as well as in the scale and stage of development.The goal of this paper is to investigate, on a case-to-case basis, the links between the choice of investment model, considering the level of public and private involvement, and several factors that indicate the success of a FTTH deployment. The most straightforward way to evaluate the success of a project is to verify to what extent its goals and targets have been reached upon completion. However interpretations of success vary. Where government participation is present, expectations of social return and economic benefit in the medium-term are most relevant. Private stakeholders want to see construction deadlines met and targeted coverage reached. Meeting ambitious goals concerning turnaround time and homes passed is also considered, as observed for the national and local projects under study.For the purpose of analyzing the cases, a common framework was developed that builds on technology, policy and market aspects, as well as their interactions, allowing for a clear mapping of the incentives, goals and actions of the different players in the field. Based on this framework the paper studies the investment mechanisms used in different FTTH deployment cases, with a focus on Public-Private Partnerships, and evaluates the success of the deployment in terms of deployment speed and coverage.Following the analysis, some general observations can be made.The importance of the policy pillar is evident in all types of deployment, be it as full investment of a public actor, participation in a PPP or as indirect aid in the form of regulatory holidays. Furthermore, policy can set strict boundaries on technological options, e.g. in obliging open access on a dark fiber (P2P topology) or bitstream (P2MP topology – GPON architecture) layer. The coverage targets are higher in smaller-scale deployments because of lower range in cost per home passed as well as easier planning. Government-driven deployments typically target very high coverage, limited however by the cost-coverage trade-off. In terms of speed of deployment, publicly-backed initiatives tend to achieve on or above targets.PPP form a successful financing model, as they combine the strengths and goals of public and private players. Public players reduce the risk for private players while ensuring that the offers put on the market are fair and reasonable. Private players need a more reliable business case but are still driven to employ their technical knowledge strengths to the maximum in order to minimize their own risk and ensure sufficient return on investment.

Architecture and implementation of an agent-based simulation tool for market-based pricing in next-generation wireless networks

We present a generic, agent-based simulation environment for dynamic pricing in next-generation wireless networks. While a lot of effort has been put into simulation platforms for recreating the behaviour of IP-based traffic in fixed and wireless networks, no standard platform for simulating different pricing schemes in such networks has yet emerged. Our work is driven by the vision of a ubiquitous wireless network environment, in which users can dynamically request network resources for various uses from different, potentially competing network providers. For such a scenario, new pricing approaches are needed to charge the user according to dynamic factors such as current congestion levels or the the number of customers present at a specific location. The developed simulation environment serves as a generic tool for implementing and testing different pricing approaches

A measure of the variability of revenue in auctions: A look at the revenue equivalence theorem.

One not-so-intuitive result in auction theory is the revenue equivalence theorem, which states that as long as an auction complies with some conditions, it will on average generate the same revenue to an auctioneer as the revenue generated by any other auction that complies with them. Surprisingly, the conditions are not defined on the payment rules to the bidders but on the fact that the bidders do not bid below a reserve value—set by the auctioneer—the winner is the one with the highest bidding and there is a common equilibrium bidding function used by all bidders. In this paper, we verify such result using extensive simulation of a broad range of auctions and focus on the variability or fluctuations of the results around the average. Such fluctuations are observed and measured in two dimensions for each type of auction: as the number of auctions grows and as the number of bidders increases.

An Agent-Based Model of Access Uptake on a High-Speed Broadband Platform

We model the access uptake on a newly built high-speed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network using a computational Agent Based Model (ABM). Two cases illustrate the model analysed in this paper: the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) Network in New Zealand (NZ) and the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia. Common learnings of both projects are used in our model to describe and analyse the uptake of fibre connections to households and businesses. By design network operation is decoupled from service provision and the platform is open-access, meaning any provider can operate end-user services. In our model a high-speed broadband network is regarded as a two-sided platform that accommodates both end-users and service providers, creating the conditions for the two sides to exploit mutual network effects. Results show that the greater the number of users (end-users or providers) on one side, the more the number of users (provider or end-users) on the opposite side grows. Providing free connections and raising consumer awareness is a means for driving consumer uptake. Scenario based analysis allows us to investigate the magnitude of network effects’ on the fibre connection uptake.

Comparing Traffic Discrimination Policies in an Agent-Based Next-Generation Network Market

Presently, the network neutrality paradigm governs the manner in which most data is transported over the Internet. However, experts often question whether keeping such a policy remains reasonable. In the context of new technologies, such as all-IP Next Generation Networks (NGN), traffic discrimination promises to benefit both network providers and users, but also imposes risks. We develop an agent-based NGN market model, in order to investigate the effects of neutral and non-neutral traffic management policies on the performance of Internet market participants. A simulation-based analysis of different policy and competition scenarios suggests that content providers perform best when network neutrality is imposed, while network providers and consumers may benefit from traffic discrimination, under certain circumstances.

Computational analysis of an auction for licensed and unlicensed use of spectrum

This paper employs simulation methods to evaluate the ability of three different auction mechanisms to determine an efficient license regime for radio spectrum as well as the efficient ownership of the associated rights. The two regimes explored are “licensed” spectrum, in which a winning bidder maintains exclusive rights to use the spectrum, subject only to technical restrictions, and “non-licensed” spectrum, in which multiple users are able to share spectrum on an open access basis. For each auction, we examine bidder incentives and provide detailed reports on both auction revenue and bidder surplus in a set of Nash equilibrium outcomes. Results are consistent with the preliminary conclusions of Bykowsky et al. (2008), that a market can be used to allocate spectrum between licensed and unlicensed use. When there is a clear market preference for either licensed or unlicensed use, all three auction mechanisms arrive at efficient outcomes. However, in the absence of such a preference, a first-price auction appears to be the preferred mechanism.

A simulation model for the dynamic allocation of network resources in a competitive wireless scenario

Next-generation wireless networks will enable the usage of different network technologies fully transparent to the user. Applications will be able to dynamically adapt to the conditions and technical constraints of the network. This vision requires a dynamic allocation of scarce network resources to different users. This paper presents simulation results from a model of admission control and dynamic resource allocation in wireless networks, in a two-provider, multiple-user scenario. The access allocation and connection procedure is implemented using an efficient (welfare maximizing) incentive mechanism for capacity allocation at both providers.

How Evolving Network Access and Network Management Technologies are Redefining the Competitive Wireless Markets

This paper examines some of the key problems users encounter when accessing current generation wireless networks. Using a case study of a hypothetical user, the authors explore the emerging services and the new broadband wireless network technologies necessary to carry them out. This paper analyses the issues associated with an observed trend in the industry that exposes potential changes to the long-term, rigid commercial relation between wireless providers and users: as a result of a range of evolved broadband wireless access standards and technologies, autonomic communications and policy-based management, and new pricing schemes, consumers will likely face new opportunities to enter short-term and spot contracts with the new wireless providers. This new landscape also allow multiple competing Access Providers APs to dynamically assign prices, and poses new and interesting challenges to the regulatory function. The paper also discusses a framework for the integration of heterogeneous technologies and management policies based on the network context that make up this emerging, hybrid wireless landscape, and describes the economic characteristics of new markets likely to arise.