Mobile telecommunication standardization in Japan, China, the United States, and Europe: a comparison of regulatory and industrial regimes

Abstract

The process that leads to standardization in the mobile telecommunication industry has changed considerably over time. Where it was first a national process, it has gradually changed into a more global process, and the role of the government in the standardization process has changed from very influential to less influential. The role of the government now mainly consists of creating boundary conditions such as competition rules and granting licenses to operate. Finally, the number of stakeholders involved in the standardization process had increased considerably from stand-alone development of the standard to a situation in which a multitude of companies work together to develop standards. The purpose of this paper is to create insight in the changes in standardization processes in mobile telecommunication. We analyze existing theory on standardization and dominant designs and construct a framework which includes geographic setting, governmental regimes and industrial regimes. We test this framework by analyzing the standardization processes of four generations of mobile telecommunication standards in four regions (i.e., Japan, China, the US, and Europe).