Telecommunications Carriers Research Articles

A flexible and scalable Ethernet architecture for telecommunication transport networks

This paper presents a novel wireless channel condition aware and floodless Ethernet architecture for telecommunication carrier networks, namely FFCSEA. The distinct advantages of FFCSEA are: 1) efficiency and resilience for wireless transmission links that are capable of adaptive modulation; 2) scalability of a single Ethernet network for a large number of nodes (i.e., eNodeB); 3) backward compatibility with existing Ethernet technology; 4) fast response time compared to SDN controller based proxy. By introducing multi-instance ITU-T G.8032 (ERPS) ring design and an optimised proactive learning based proxy mechanism, FFCSEA achieves flexibility (i.e., efficiency and resilience during microwave adaptive modulation changes) and scalability of the transport network. Simulation and analytical results validate comparative advantage of FFCSEA over existing protocols both in terms of flexibility and scalability. The analysis and design presented in this paper will be useful for both traditional networks and SDN.

SoftBank’s Acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corporation

This case illustrates the cultural challenges that SoftBank, a Japanese corporation, experienced in the M&A integration of Sprint Next Corporation, the third largest US wireless telecommunications carrier in 2015. In the mind of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s maverick founder, the consolidation of SoftBank and Sprint was to create the world’s No. 1 company in the telecommunications industry. Although it seemed beneficial to SoftBank financially and strategically, differences in the business cultures of two corporations and countries where they were based raised concerns about the success of their integration. In addition to the cultural differences, SoftBank managers faced extra challenges from their Midwest counterparts through a series of changes in business strategies, marketing, human resources, and management since its acquisition of June 2013. How could SoftBank and Sprint increase the odds of success?

Exploring Communication Behaviors of Users to Target Potential Users in Mobile Social Networks

In mobile communication services, users can communicate with each other over different telecommunication carriers. For telecom operators, how to acquire and retain users is a significant and practical task. Note that telecom operators only have their own customer profiles. For the users from other telecom operators, their information is sparse. Thus, given a set of communication logs, the main theme of our work is to identify the potential users who will possibly join the target services in the near future. Since only a limited amount of information is available, one challenging issue is how to extract features from the communication logs. In this article, we propose a Communication-Based Feature Generation (CBFG) framework that extracts features and builds models to infer the potential users. Explicitly, we construct a heterogeneous information network from the communication logs of users. Then, we extract the explicit features, which refer to those calling features of users, from the potential users’ interaction behaviors in the heterogeneous information network. Moreover, from the calling behaviors of users, one could extract the possible community structures of users. Based on the community structures, we further extract the implicit features of users. In light of both explicit and implicit features, we propose an information-gain-based method to select the effective features. According to the features selected, we utilize three popular classifiers (i.e., AdaBoost, Random Forest, and SVM) to build models to target the potential users. In addition, we have designed a sampling approach to extract training data for classifiers. To evaluate our methods, we have conducted experiments on a real dataset. The results of our experiments show that the features extracted by our proposed method can be effective for targeting the potential users.

Virtualized Networks and Virtualized Optical Line Terminal (vOLT)

ABSTRACTThe success of the Internet and the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is forcing telecommunications carriers to re-architecture a central office as a datacenter (CORD) so as to bring the datacenter economics and cloud agility to a central office (CO). The Open Network Operating System (ONOS) is the first open-source software-defined network (SDN) operating system which is capable of managing and controlling network, computing, and storage resources to support CORD infrastructure and network virtualization. The virtualized Optical Line Termination (vOLT) is one of the key components in such virtualized networks.

The mobile Internet underclass: Reality or hyperbole?

Scholars have warned that because mobile Internet access offers lower levels of functionality and content availability, operates on less open and flexible platforms and contributes to diminished levels of user engagement, content creation and information seeking compared with traditional fixed solutions, mobile Internet has created a mobile Internet ‘underclass’. As a growing proportion of the online population is now ‘mobile only’, it is imperative to understand the extent to which mobile Internet may represent a meaningful substitute for traditional PC-based Internet access. Based on operational data from a major Chinese telecommunications carrier, this study provides a comparative analysis of the mobile Internet usage patterns associated with different access channels. Our results show that, in terms of mobile Internet usage, there is not enough evidence to support the ‘mobile underclass’ argument. However, our analysis reveals that the primary concern about the mobile ‘underclass’ remains as the first-order digital divide ‘access’ issue.

Towards Customer Leadership

Today Australia's telecommunications market is strongly contested. Competitors with highly skilled, experienced and focused marketing teams battle for market position, market share and profit growth.This has not always been so.Telecom Australia was established in 1975 as the government owned national telecommunications carrier. Protected by regulated monopolies for network services and customer premises equipment, Telecom held perhaps 90% of the market. The predominantly engineering culture believed that it only needed a nominal marketing department and no sales force.In 1981 the monopolies were threatened. Telecom decided that it needed a sales force - quickly.This is a brief story of the building of that sales force over the first five years.In a government owned business steeped in the public service culture, strongly influenced by the public service unions and under a Labour government it was a grinding task.After five years the "subscribers" were more widely addressed and treated as "customers" and the sales force was operational. It was to be at least another six years before the sales force made the customers the focus of the business, and the skills, experience, management and culture of the force could match serious competitors in a de-regulated market.

Towards Customer Leadership

Today Australia's telecommunications market is strongly contested. Competitors with highly skilled, experienced and focused marketing teams battle for market position, market share and profit growth.This has not always been so.Telecom Australia was established in 1975 as the government owned national telecommunications carrier. Protected by regulated monopolies for network services and customer premises equipment, Telecom held perhaps 90% of the market. The predominantly engineering culture believed that it only needed a nominal marketing department and no sales force.In 1981 the monopolies were threatened. Telecom decided that it needed a sales force - quickly.This is a brief story of the building of that sales force over the first five years.In a government owned business steeped in the public service culture, strongly influenced by the public service unions and under a Labour government it was a grinding task.After five years the "subscribers" were more widely addressed and treated as "customers" and the sales force was operational. It was to be at least another six years before the sales force made the customers the focus of the business, and the skills, experience, management and culture of the force could match serious competitors in a de-regulated market.

HOW TO GROW REVENUES IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD?

Should Syniverse, a company whose principal business involved routing text messages between telecom carriers, re-think its business? Rob Hammond, product executive for enterprise products, wonders if he focus the company on the products it knew, expanding the existing text messaging business into high growth mobile markets, or should he invest in expanding the new product of enabling mobile for business applications?

Half the world without Internet: How brands can boost access to data on mobile phones

This paper explores ways that brands can help expand Internet use worldwide. Less than half the world’s households are now connected to the Internet, in large measure because of costs. Consumers increasingly go online through phones instead of computers. Yet many people cannot afford enough data on their phones to use the Internet extensively. This paper looks at two case studies in Brazil, where clients of mobile marketing agency MUV used innovative strategies to expand data access for mobile phone users. In the first case, e-commerce company Netshoes paid major telecom carriers upfront so that consumers would get free and unlimited access to Netshoes’ mobile site and mobile app from their phones. Netshoes’ business soared. In the second case, Unilever’s Dove brand offered consumers who had run out of phone data a chance to win extra data for their phones. A Dove video was available on a captive portal for people who had used up their phone data and who correctly answered questions about the ad. Clicks and brand awareness jumped. Both cases show the power of brands to help boost Internet use.

The Trollope of Australian Telecommunications

Trevor Barr’s page-turner of a novel Grand Intentions tackles the ugly side of the neo-liberalism sweeping Australia in the 1990s and 2000s. It examines the privatisation of an incumbent telecommunications carrier, and the drastic impact of its imported US corporate culture on several individuals. He deploys a cast of plausible fictional characters while allowing the narrative to be driven by an echo of real events in the Australian telecommunications industry.

The Trollope of Australian Telecommunications

Trevor Barr’s page-turner of a novel Grand Intentions tackles the ugly side of the neo-liberalism sweeping Australia in the 1990s and 2000s. It examines the privatisation of an incumbent telecommunications carrier, and the drastic impact of its imported US corporate culture on several individuals. He deploys a cast of plausible fictional characters while allowing the narrative to be driven by an echo of real events in the Australian telecommunications industry.

Live Migration of Virtualized Carrier Grade SIP Server

The concept of network virtualization, such as network functions virtualization, has attracted considerable attention from telecom carriers and a live migration technique is a key feature of virtualization technology. However, there are some challenges associated with applying server virtualization technology including live migration to a SIP server. Previous work has not dealt with the performance or behavior of a SIP server during live migration. Neither has it targeted a carrier grade SIP server for live migration. In this paper we present a virtualized carrier grade SIP server running on a virtual machine, which is configured with Carrier Grade Linux, HA middleware and SIP-AS application. We also assess its performance to investigate the impact of throughput degradation and suspension on a SIP layer and HA cluster configuration.

Operators at crossroads: Market protection or innovation?

Many today believe that the mobile Internet was invented by Apple in the USA with their iPhone, enabling a data-driven Internet ecosystem to disrupt the staid voice and SMS business models of the telecom carriers. History, however, shows that the mobile Internet was first successfully commercialised in Japan, in 1999. Some authors such as Richard Feasey in Telecommunications Policy (Issue 6, 2015) argue that operators had been confused and unprepared when the Internet emerged and introduced “walled gardens”, without Internet access. This comment article reviews in detail how the operators reacted when the fixed, and later the mobile Internet spread: some introduced walled gardens, some opened it for the “unofficial” content on the Internet. The article concludes that most large European telecom and information technology companies and their investors have a tradition of risk avoidance and pursued high-price strategies that led them to regularly fail against better and cheaper foreign products and services, not only when the wireless Internet was introduced, but also when PCs and the fixed Internet were introduced. Consequences, such as the need to enable future disruptions and boost the skills needed to master them, are presented.

Are Consumers Myopic? Evidence from Hansdet and Mobile Services Choices

This paper estimates a discrete choice model for combination of mobile tariffs and handsets using a cross section of 11,000 new customers from a European telecommunications carrier. It mainly focuses on the valuation of tariff price, handset subsidy and price of the handset. On the one hand, a significant evolution is observed over time. Indeed, important changes on the supply side are observed, mainly in the mobile service market but also in the retailing market. On the other hand, age of consumers also influences in a wide extent consumers valuation of services and handset. Accounting for this heterogeneity, the model enables to estimate a measure for myopia occurring when consumers are trading-off price of the tariff and upfront cost of the handset. If evidence of myopia is shown for the whole time period considered (Q4 of 2011-Q4 of 2014), its magnitude tends to decrease significantly since the end of 2012. This effect is mainly due to the take-off of sim-only contracts, emergence of cheaper handsets and improved quality of information provided to consumers.

Government Protection of Domestic Communications as National Defense: Assessing Canadian Government Policies

In the nominal interest of promoting a national identity and a stronger federation, a range of public policies have been implemented by the Canadian government to encourage and facilitate cross-subsidization in the Canadian telecommunications and broadcasting industries. The main policy instruments involve government regulations and foreign ownership restrictions that contribute to higher revenues for domestic producers of communication services than would otherwise be realized. The quid pro quo is that domestic telecommunications carriers and broadcasters must undertake costly and unprofitable actions that involve subsidizing activities such as rural telephone services and “Canadian entertainment content.” Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the relevant policies promote the goal of strengthening Canada’s national identity. Furthermore, they are inefficient, as well as nontransparent. The fact that several other countries, particularly France, have lauded Canadian content regulations as a “model” for smaller, open economies, they are more appropriately viewed as the socially undesirable outcome of a muddled public choice dynamic.

Sustainability of rural informatization programs in developing countries: A case study of China׳s Sichuan province

Traditionally, the role of telecommunications carriers is often limited to providing connections in rural informatization programs. This paper illustrates the case of Sichuan׳s government-carrier cooperative rural informatization model, where the carriers serve as both the information aggregator and distributor. A close historical analysis reveals that this seemingly unprofitable rural informatization service was originally conceived by competing carriers as a marketing strategy to gain a competitive advantage in less lucrative markets. However, when the government decided to promulgate such an informatization program nationwide, the business practice turned into one of the carrier׳s de facto obligations. Thus, Sichuan׳s model is a mixture of the passive fulfillment of political duty and the proactive pursuit of business interests. A sustainability failure analytical framework is applied to test the sustainability of Sichuan׳s model, which is found to be at risk of financial, social and institutional sustainability failures.

Out of the Frying Pan & into the Fire: The FCC Takes over Privacy Regulation

In late 2014, the FCC imposed an unprecedented $10 million fine against Terracom — not for violating the FCC’s CPNI rules issued under Section 222(b) and (e), but for failing to provide “reasonable” data security, a duty the Commission found, for the first time, to flow from the general language of Section 222(a) and the “just and reasonable” standard of Section 201(b). In March, the FCC reclassified all broadband providers under Title II — and chose not to forbear from applying either of these sections to broadband. The FCC has promised to clarify what its approach will be in the future.This paper will explore this evolving issue in depth, including several key legal questions: What does the Open Internet order’s discussion of IP addresses as the equivalent of phone numbers (in order to justify reinterpretation of “public switched network” and thus reclassification of wireless) mean for privacy regulation? How will CPNI regulation, traditionally focused on the adequacy of opt-in consent, evolve? How might the FCC use its sweeping “general conduct” standard or its claimed Section 706 authority over data practices? (The FCC’s 2014 706(b) NOI specifically asked how privacy and security concerns affect broadband deployment.) How might the FCC’s case-by-case enforcement approach work without clear limiting principles? Is the FCC essentially creating a murkier version of the FTC’s unfairness standard? What lessons can be learned from the experience of the FTC with unfairness and, more recently, with data security and privacy regulation?How far might the FCC’s regulation extend? Might the FCC reclassify other services beyond broadband? Might it indirectly regulate non-common carriers by maintaining that telecom carriers have a duty not to “permit access” (Section 222(c)(1)) to CPNI by, say, mobile operating system or apps operators except subject to a flow-through of CPNI obligations? Will broadband providers, especially mobile operators, become the new intermediaries responsible for policing the data practices of other players in the ecosystem? This paper will describe where the FCC may head, the pitfalls of various approaches, and offer normative suggestions for how the FCC, FTC and Congress should handle the privacy and data security practices of broadband providers (and other related services).

Technology transitions within telecommunications networks: Lessons from U.S. vs. Canadian policy experimentation under federalism

This article examines why recent telecommunications policy outcomes are diverging between the U.S. and Canada, notwithstanding the similarities in their common law and statutory law histories. The consequences of this divergence are profound. As technology transitions within the public switched telecommunications network proceed, the U.S. imposes fewer obligations on broadband and Internet service providers and provides a much-diminished level of consumer protection relative to that in Canada. The role of differing administrative procedures and policymaking forums is an important factor contributing to recent policy divergence. Historical analysis also reveals the importance of the role of path dependence from some early differences in U.S. and Canadian policy choices made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These differences in early policy choices emerged from (1) differences in federalism structures between the U.S. and Canada; (2) negation of Bell patents in Canada that triggered an earlier era of telephony competition as well as both federal and provincial policy experimentation; and (3) AT&T׳s unique public relations campaign of regulated monopoly developed in the U.S. in response to this earlier policy experimentation in Canada. AT&T׳s public relations campaign has induced a false memory in the U.S. – not found in Canada – as to the origins of regulated monopoly for telephony. This false memory has contributed to the efficacy of telecommunications carriers׳ false monopoly theory argument – that their historical duties have been based on the existence of monopoly, and thus are not applicable in a competitive environment – which has and continues to distort telecommunications policy development in the U.S. including the network neutrality debate. Yet, telecommunications carriers׳ dual status as common carriers and public utilities under the common law has created confusion in both the U.S. and Canada. This confusion has created a tendency to misattribute the duty to serve to the existence of monopoly, providing a different — although still historically flawed — basis for asserting a monopoly theory argument for the purpose of eliminating regulation. This confusion, however, is more easily corrected in Canada where there was no comparable public relations campaign of regulated monopoly for proponents of deregulation to leverage. The resonance of early policy differences between the U.S. and Canada illustrates the complexity of pursuing telecommunications policy debates within multi-jurisdictional legal frameworks — a challenge that the European Union currently faces in developing a Telecommunications Single Market.

The Digital Disruption and its Societal Impacts

Deepening digitalization and globalization has induced an ongoing societal trans- formation that may ultimately prove to be as significant as the original industrial revolution. Even as the ICT industry is being restructured, global competition is being transformed. Previously dominant firms—including telecommunications carriers, equipment providers, and powerful legacy software firms—are under assault from the move to cloud computing, in the network center, and mobile computing, on the network periphery. This transformation of the computing and communication infrastructure has been occurring simultaneously with the spread of ever more complicated and sophisticated global value chains. The articles in this special issue explore a number of the key facets of this transformation in a comparative lens. The authors find that the social, legal, and economic arrangements will impact how these changes affect nation-states. For policy-makers there will be serious dilemmas, as they will have to simultaneously nurture and support many aspects of these changes, while also mitigating or channeling some of the outcomes so as to protect privacy, income equality, and fair taxation.

PSS Characterisation of Telecom Offerings

The global telecommunication network provides a powerful infrastructure supporting a multitude of offerings. As early as the 1980's the telecom industry had moved to services using telecom products that could be provided within the offers (a gateway included in the offer) or by the customers themselves (a computer to access the web). However, although modern telecommunication systems are often considered as good support for Product Service Systems (PSS), telecom carriers hardly refer to PSS when establishing their own offers. Indeed it is not always easy to understand how modern telecom services, using personal mobile phones and other objects, really fit with PSS philosophy. This paper evaluates telecom offerings from a PSS standpoint. Current telecom offerings are compared with PSS characteristics found in literature. The results clarify the potentials of current telecom offerings in the PSS paradigm.