Cellular Mobile Telephone Research Articles

FORECASTING GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) OF OECD COUNTRIES BASED ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INDICATORS: ANN APPROACH

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic process we all face currently has highlighted the fact that digitalization of economic activities is very crucial. Digital economy became even more important after the pandemic. When the governments allocate a greater proportion of Gross Domestic Product on some public services, the lower the proportion spent on other goods and services. For this reason, many countries want to estimate the Gross Domestic Product spent on public services within the scope of public control and risk management. The main goal in this study is to predict Gross Domestic Product per capita based on digital indicators such as fixed-broadband subscriptions, mobile-cellular telephone penetration rate, fixed-telephone subscriptions, internet penetration rate, research and development expenditure and patent applications. Artificial Neural Networks are employed to predict Gross Domestic Product per capita via digital indicators. Artificial Neural Network method is used to estimate the digital economy for 29 OECD countries between 2002–2018. The results demonstrate that Artificial Neural Networks can be utilized effectively in applications of digital economy forecasting. According to the results, coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.92) is very high, meaning that Artificial Neural Networks can be effectively utilized in Gross Domestic Product per capita estimations through digital indicators. This article differs from previous studies as it uses digital economic indicators in predicting Gross Domestic Product per capita by applying Artificial Neural Networks model.

Network effects—do they matter for digital technologies diffusion?

PurposeThe main research target of this paper is to capture the network effects using the case of mobile cellular telephony, identified in European telecommunication markets, and its determinants enhancing the process of digital technologies diffusion.Design/methodology/approachThis research relies on panel and dynamic panel regression analysis. The empirical sample covers 30 European countries, and the period for the analysis is set for 2000–2019.FindingsThis work contributes by examining the network effects identified on European telecommunication markets that drive the process of digital technologies diffusion, but it also extends the understanding of the latter by tracing major determinants of fast network expansion, e.g. prices of access to and use of, per capita income, urbanisation, population density, accessibility of fixed telephony infrastructure. The main findings support the initial supposition that the installed base strongly enhances diffusion of new technologies, while other factors, for example, prices, are not of prime importance.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has certain managerial implications. The unveiled network effects driving adoption of technological innovations constitute a significant determinant of implementation of differentiation strategy by telecommunication companies. Due to network effects consumers' propensity to join the network is valued higher than the prices of services offered, which is crucial not only from the perspective of the company's pricing strategy but also enables telecommunication companies to introduce to the market new products and/or services concentrating on increasing its quality and usability rather than future prices.Originality/valueThis is the first work that empirically verifies the intercompanies and interpersonal diffusion of cellular telephony, hypothesising that this process relies on unique network effects.

Information and Communication Technology Adoption and Life Insurance Market Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

As part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), blockchain, fintech (financial technology), and insurtech (insurance technology) are some innovations that have been rolled out in the financial landscape and have captured the imaginations of policymakers and scholars alike. The African continent lags in embracing technology and is still grappling with financial access and enhancing financial inclusion. As such, it is bewildering whether African insurance markets are at a stage where they can leverage the possibilities offered by the 4IR. Against this backdrop, the aim of the study was to investigate whether information communication technology (ICT) adoption influences the development of African life insurance markets. We utilised a sample of 31 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2005–2020. Panel data techniques were employed, and the pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and random effect estimators were used to test the relationship between life insurance density and the measures for ICT adoption (proxied by fixed telephones, internet use, mobile cellular telephones, and broadband) as well as financial freedom being the control variable. We found that the life insurance market development variable was positively related to three of the four ICT adoption variables, namely, fixed telephone, mobile cellular telephone, and broadband. Further, the life insurance market development variable is positively related to the financial freedom variable. These findings suggest that ICT adoption fosters the development of the life insurance market in Africa. The findings also lend credence to the view that the degrees of financial freedom of insurance companies (who are unencumbered by regulations) have a bearing on the levels of insurance sales and, hence, promote life insurance access in Africa. The policy imperatives that flow from this study are that African governments must ensure that they (1) institute ICT adoption-friendly policies and (2) regulate the life insurance sector optimally, in order to foster the development of their life insurance sectors.

ICT and agricultural sector performance: empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

ICT infrastructure is considered crucial to performance and overall development of many sectors in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet, there exists insufficient evidence on the effect of ICT on agriculture real output and export performance in the African continent. This study investigates the effect of ICT infrastructure on agriculture sector performances in SSA using panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Panel data were collected over the period of twenty-three (23) years (1995–2017) in 39 SSA countries. Two models were specified using agricultural value addition and agriculture products as a percentage of total merchandise export as dependent variables. Key independent variables include mobile-cellular telephone subscription and individual using the internet. The study also introduced important control variables such as livestock production index and crop production index. The results from the estimation provide substantial evidence to show that ICT infrastructure has positive externality on agricultural sector performances in the long run. However, there is no evidence to maintain this position in the short run. The study, therefore, recommends that there should be a cautious approach to increasing investment in ICT infrastructure. Provision of in ICT infrastructure alone may not automatically improve agricultural output. Thus, there is a need for extension services to propagate and educate farmers on the importance of continuous adoption of ICT infrastructure for agricultural practices in SSA.

ICT Access and Entrepreneurship in the Open Innovation Dynamic Context: Evidence from OECD Countries

In recent decades, entrepreneurship has become increasingly important for innovation and economic growth. However, few studies demonstrate the role of information and communication technology systems (ICT) in promoting entrepreneurship, and even fewer studies show that ICT is a crucial resource for entrepreneurs. This study examines the direct influence of ICTs on entrepreneurial activity in OECD countries in the context of the open innovation dynamic. Based on an unbalanced dynamic longitudinal panel of data, we conclude that access to ICTs (mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, individuals using the internet, and fixed-broadband subscriptions) positively influences Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA). However, the importance of ICTs for entrepreneurial activity is not equal, with mobile-cellular telephones having the strongest influence on the rate of new firm creation, followed by fixed-broadband, and internet access. This study contributes to the rationale of resource-based theory by demonstrating that ICTs are a valuable resource for boosting the capabilities for creating, collecting, processing, and interpreting information, which is vital for entrepreneurial activity. On the other hand, this study attempts to suppress an existing gap in the literature due to the still scarce studies demonstrating how macro-level ICTs affect the creation of new firms in countries. Finally, it contributed to empirically substantiating the relationship between open innovation dynamic and entrepreneurship, as very few studies do.

Why is African Trade so Limited?

This paper studies the determinants of the low participation of African countries to international trade. We point out the under-trading status of Africa, then we estimate a gravity equation in order to identify the determinants of trade in general. As we characterize the level of these explanatory variables in Africa as compared to the rest of the world, we identify the main variables behind the low participation of Africa to trade in general. Usual gravity factors play an important role, but we show that non-tariff measures and the quality of infrastructure and institutions are important. Import duties does not significantly impede African exports. We test the impact on African countries’ exports of a counterfactual scenario where infrastructure and institution variables in African countries are changed to the world average and conclude that the most important leverage effect to be expected from investment in infrastructure would be from mobile cellular telephone subscriptions. If we consider only countries where exports are positively affected, this counterfactual exercise implies a change by 31.0% of national exports on average by African country. While this result is interesting it has to be considered with caution since the exact form of the relation between trade and mobile cellular telephone subscriptions is largely unknown.

Why is African Trade so Limited?

This paper studies the determinants of the low participation of African countries to international trade. We point out the under-trading status of Africa, then we estimate a gravity equation in order to identify the determinants of trade in general. As we characterize the level of these explanatory variables in Africa as compared to the rest of the world, we identify the main variables behind the low participation of Africa to trade in general. Usual gravity factors play an important role, but we show that non-tariff measures and the quality of infrastructure and institutions are important. Import duties does not significantly impede African exports. We test the impact on African countries’ exports of a counterfactual scenario where infrastructure and institution variables in African countries are changed to the world average and conclude that the most important leverage effect to be expected from investment in infrastructure would be from mobile cellular telephone subscriptions. If we consider only countries where exports are positively affected, this counterfactual exercise implies a change by 31.0% of national exports on average by African country. While this result is interesting it has to be considered with caution since the exact form of the relation between trade and mobile cellular telephone subscriptions is largely unknown.

Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and Government Expenditure in Sub Saharan Africa: The influence of Information Communication Technology (ICT)

This study introduces the moderating effects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the relationship between corruption perception and government expenditures in Sub Saharan Africa. Two hypotheses were developed to address the research objectives. Data were collected from secondary sources and analysed with regression model through Eview package. The results of the study shows that corruption perception index (CPI) and Mobile cellular Telephone subscription (MCTS) are positive and significantly related with general government final capital expenditure. Even though corruption perception index and fixed telephone subscription (CPI*FTS) and CPI*MCTS are positive, they are both insignificant, however, fixed telephone subscription declines final consumption expenditure. The result also shows that one can be misled when thinking that corruption perception index influences the degree at which the government makes expenditures on final consumption.

Creation of a virtual learning environment to support presential discipline in a technological course

This study developed a virtual learning environment to support face-to-face teaching of the subject of Mobile Cellular Telephony of a federal institution of professional and technological education that operates in Northern Brazil. The methodology used consisted of quantitative-qualitative research, of a technological nature, developed in seven stages: 1) installation of the XAMPP and Moodle software, 2) configuration of the teaching environment, 3) allocation of the Moodle platform, 4) use of virtual resources interactive, 5) production of learning objects, 6) measurement of environmental performance indicators and 7) analysis and generation of results. The results showed that a) this was the first virtual learning experience for almost all participating students and teachers interviewed, b) teachers and students were motivated to use virtual environments in their teaching and learning activities, since c) the environment proved to be highly efficient and effective in generating effective learning and d) almost all students carried out the evaluation questions without much difficulty, as usually happens with traditional classes. The conclusion was that a discipline planned from the Moodle platform's perspective has several advantages, such as optimizing study time and the dynamics of classes.

Remote Assessment of Parkinson's Disease Symptom Severity Using the Simulated Cellular Mobile Telephone Network.

Telemonitoring of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has attracted considerable research interest because of its potential to make a lasting, positive impact on the life of patients and their carers. Purpose-built devices have been developed that record various signals which can be associated with average PD symptom severity, as quantified on standard clinical metrics such as the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Speech signals are particularly promising in this regard, because they can be easily recorded without the use of expensive, dedicated hardware. Previous studies have demonstrated replication of UPDRS to within less than 2 points of a clinical raters’ assessment of symptom severity, using high-quality speech signals collected using dedicated telemonitoring hardware. Here, we investigate the potential of using the standard voice-over-GSM (2G) or UMTS (3G) cellular mobile telephone networks for PD telemonitoring, networks that, together, have greater than 5 billion subscribers worldwide. We test the robustness of this approach using a simulated noisy mobile communication network over which speech signals are transmitted, and approximately 6000 recordings from 42 PD subjects. We show that UPDRS can be estimated to within less than 3.5 points difference from the clinical raters’ assessment, which is clinically useful given that the inter-rater variability for UPDRS can be as high as 4–5 UPDRS points. This provides compelling evidence that the existing voice telephone network has potential towards facilitating inexpensive, mass-scale PD symptom telemonitoring applications.

The Role of Information and Communication Technology on Service Trade : Case Study of Indonesia's Export to ASEAN Countries

This study aims to analyze the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on bilateral trade in service between Indonesia and its ASEAN trading partners. The sample is bilateral export in service between Indonesia and 9 ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. The total trade in service data is based on UN-Comtrade. It consists of service products that are coded in Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). This study uses the gravity model framework of data panel from 2005 to 2017 with random effect model is analyzed using Generalized Least Square. Based on the regression analysis, results show that sub-index of ICT Development Index (IDI) such as mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants which represents technology development, has a positive and significant impact on Indonesia’s service export to ASEAN countries. Other variables such as GDP and distance also have significant effect on Indonesia’s export in service. GDP reporter, GDP partners and common language have positive and significant effect on Indonesia’s export in service. Furthermore, distance has a negative and significant effect on Indonesia’s export in service. These results are in line with Gravity model theory. In addition, these results are expected to be strong enough for the specifications of alternative models and estimation methods. Based on these results, some expected trade policy recommendation related to trade in service and telecommunication particularly trade between Indonesia and ASEAN countries can be formulated. For instance, to strengthen Indonesia’s networking and infrastructure of telecommunication in ASEAN countries. To build more Base Transceiver Station (BTS) located in trading partners in ASEAN. Telin Singapore established by Telkom Indonesia is officially established in 2007 and is the first Telkom footprint in international business. Since Singapore is Indonesia’s trading partner which has the highest of ICT Development Index among other ASEAN countries, the Indonesian government need to continue the implementation of Information and Communication Joint Committee Indonesia-Singapore.

Assessment of performance of telecom service providers using intuitionistic fuzzy grey relational analysis framework (IF-GRA)

Over two decades, telecommunication market has been continuing a huge growth in urban, semi-urban and rural regions of India. Investigating and choosing the desirable cellular mobile telephone service providers (TSPs) based on operative constraint can facilitate to obtain the ideal of TSPs selection. Here, the evaluation commonly encompasses different TSP options under various operational factors; thus, the assessment of TSPs can be considered as a rigorous multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) issue. This paper initiates a structure for the exploration of the TSPs in the Madhya Pradesh region, India. To do this, a framework associated with grey relational analysis (GRA) on intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) is planned to obtain the performance of various telecom participants. The developed approach is based on the conception of the best and worst solutions. To find the attribute weights, a divergence measure is developed and employed by relative comparisons. Additionally, to show the proficiency and practicality, a selection problem of TSPs options of Madhya Pradesh circle, India is presented within the IFSs context. By employing the developed model, an expert can enlarge tactics to enhance the performance by standard operational factors. Comparison and sensitivity analysis are considered to validate the developed approach in the prioritization of the TSPs options.

Implementation of a GSM base station and reception of LTE signals, applying radio defined by software

Santo Tomás University does not currently have the entire telecommunications infrastructure that allows its students to perform laboratory practices in the area of mobile telephony. Therefore, this research work has the purpose of implementing a mobile cellular telephone base (TMC), GSM 2G and the development of a LTE 4G signal reception system, all this through the use of software-defined radio and free software tools. The implementation of the base station generates and manages the wireless resource issued by it, in order to provide short text messaging services and voice call. On the other hand, the LTE 4G signal reception system was developed in the GNURadio software, which allows replicating a didactic and educational form of the whole process of generation and reception of basic mobile telecommunications services.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Economic Growth in ASEAN-5 Countries

Digital economy generally refers to a digital technology-based economy. The embrace of digital economy is transforming a nation's economic growth. Countries blessed with successful digitisation will improve their economic performance; hence, it could increase country's GDP growth. In this respect, ASEAN-5 countries becoming a major economic force driver in Asia as well as to the global growth. The goal of this research is therefore to investigate the relationship between ICT and economic growth in the ASEAN-5 countries over the 2003 to 2018 study period. Using static and dynamic panel data estimation, results shows that fixed telephone line subscription has the greatest impact on ICT on economic growth. The findings suggest countries shall focus on the innovation of ICT especially on the mobile-cellular telephone subscription and fixed telephone line subscription to achieve economic growth. Investments in ICT infrastructure foster co-operation in ICT technology as well as advancing ICT particularly on the rise in jobs in the ICT sector, transforming government services into digital form to enhance economic growth in the country.

An Integrated approach for performance measurement of Indian telecom service providers

The purpose of this research paper is to measure the operational performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers (CMTSP) in India. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) integrated approach are used to compare the operational performances of CMTSP. This analysis is based on the information gathered by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for the duration of January-March 2016. Three major parameters covering eight criteria: network availability, connection accessibility, and connection retainability are incorporated in this analysis. On the basis of the analysis, it has been observed that Reliance Communication has the first ranking and MTNL has the last ranking. This paper may help the management in the creation of a plan of action to improve the performance of the company by benchmarking the operational parameters on the basis of this model.

Intuitionistic fuzzy divergence measure-based ELECTRE method for performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers

In India, Telecom sector has been enduring a massive growth for over two and half decades in the bandwidth, preference of services and depth of penetration in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. Exploring the service providers or selecting the best cellular mobile telephone service providers (CMTSPs/TSPs) according to operational performance parameter can help to achieve the goal of telecom service provider selection (TSPS). Here, this assessment generally comprises various TSPs alternatives and different operational performance criteria; therefore, TSPS could be considered as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The analytical data have been taken from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jan–Mar 2017. Most of the data vary from 1 month to another. Thus, these small ranges of variation in the data are incorporated with the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs). In this paper, we develop an outranking method, intuitionistic fuzzy ELECTRE (IF-ELECTRE), for MCDM problems. Proposed method is based on divergence measure, operators of IFNs, some modifications of classical ELECTRE method. In the MCDM, the criterion weight determination is a vital issue for the accuracy of evaluation results. In the process of calculation of criterion weight, concordance and discordance values, we propose new Jensen–Shannon divergence (JS-divergence) for IFSs to overcome the shortcoming of the existing ones and demonstrate different elegant properties of the proposed one. Since the uncertainty is an inevitable feature of MCDM problems, the proposed method can be a valuable tool for decision-making in an uncertain atmosphere to determine the partial-preference outranking order. To express the strength and reasonableness of the proposed method in the real-world MCDM problems, a TSPS problem is implemented. Using the proposed framework, a decision expert can make a strategy to improve the performance by benchmarking operational parameters. Finally, a comparison is discussed between the results of the proposed method and the existing ones for validating the proposed method. This analysis shows that the proposed method is efficient and well consistent with the other methods.

Multi-criteria assessment of cellular mobile telephone service providers using intuitionistic fuzzy WASPAS method with similarity measures

The objective of this paper is to construct an outline to explore the performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers (TSPs) in the Madhya Pradesh (MP) (including CG) circle, India. The data for the analysis has been considered from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jan–March 2017. Most of the data fluctuate from month by month. As a result, these small deviations in the data are integrated in the current research with the intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs). The present research employs an intuitionistic fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (IF-WASPAS) method to compare the performance of TSPs. Proposed method is based on the IFSs operators, and a new method for calculation of criteria weights. For the computation of criteria weights, we aggregate the subjective weights articulated by the decision experts with the objective weights derived from similarity measure method to achieve more reasonable weights. To compute the objective weight, new similarity measures are developed for IFSs and demonstrated various elegant properties of the proposed similarity measures. Finally, to express the strength and applicability of the proposed method, a case study to compare the performance of TSPs is considered. Next, a sensitivity analysis with different criteria weights and various values of parameters is presented to illustrate the strength of the developed IF-WASPAS method. A comparison is discussed between the developed method and some existing ones for certifying the developed method. Present analysis demonstrates that aggregating the subjective and objective weights can facilitate to enhance the stability of the developed method with different criteria weights.

Cellular mobile telephony in Nepal

This paper examines the adoption of cellular mobile telephony at the district level and the mobile subscription growth rate at the national level in Nepal. The findings suggest that districts that are characterized by higher per capita income, population density, and usage of electricity have higher adoption levels of mobile telephony. Positive spatial autocorrelation as well as positive feedback and spillover effects are observable with reference to mobile service adoption. At the national level, the mobile subscription growth rate is positive and mobile telephony subscription should grow in the short-run.

An Investigation into the Impact of Mobile Technologies on Economic Growth and Employment in the Caribbean

The adoption of mobile technologies in developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia has grown exponentially. People in poor regions are using mobile phones for banking, business transactions, socializing, staying connected and monitor the weather. This has reduced the need for travel, lead to the creation of new businesses, shorten supply chains and boost productivity. Consequently, these technologies can be used to eliminate the time and distance barriers between businesses and their customers. This paper examined the impact of mobile technologies in ten Caribbean countries which are primarily developing countries. It utilized a cross-country panel data and regression analysis to estimate and investigates the impact of mobile technologies on economic growth. Results from the paper showed that all the coefficient of the mobile technology components namely the internet user ratio, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions and the fixed-telephone subscriptions were all significant and positive across all the regressions. This is because of the belief that they contribute to the knowledge spillover, which consequently enhances economic growth.

A comparative analysis of operational performance of Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Providers in the Delhi working area using an approach of fuzzy ELECTRE

The purpose of this research paper is to develop a framework to analyze the operational performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers (CMTSP) in the Delhi working area, India. Delhi area has the highest teledensity in India. The present study uses a fuzzy ELECTRE (Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality) approach to compare the performance of cellular mobile telephone service providers. The data for the analysis have been taken from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), April–June 2015. Most of the data vary from one month to another. Therefore, these small ranges of variation in the data are incorporated in this study using the fuzzy number. Total six major telecom service providers are considered in this analysis. The findings of the study suggest that the performances of Airtel and Reliance communications are in the first rank; Vodafone and Idea are in the second rank; Aircel is in the third rank, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is outranked by all the other service providers. The performance is analyzed on the basis of three major parameters consisting six criteria, i.e. network availability (Base Transceiver Station accumulated downtime), connection accessibility (call setup success rate, channel congestion, and traffic channel congestion), and connection retainability (call drop rate and connection with good voice quality). It has been observed that MTNL is outranked due to the highest traffic channel congestion and highest call drop rate. Using this framework, a decision maker can develop a strategy to improve the performance by benchmarking operational parameters. The research analysis is limited to only GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) service providers in the Delhi working area, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, and Gurgaon.