Mobile Service Usage and Business Models in Wireless Local Area Networks

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Journal Title

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Volume Title

Elektroniikan, tietoliikenteen ja automaation tiedekunta | Master's thesis

Date

2009

Department

Major/Subject

Radiotekniikka

Mcode

S-26

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

12 + 103

Series

Abstract

The usefulness of knowing end- user behavior is becoming important for all key players of the mobile industry (including mobile service providers, device manufacturers and mobile operators) in order to promote new mobile services and win customers in the highly competitive market. Here end-user behavior refers to when and where people use mobile devices, and for what purpose and which access technologies they use. This thesis studies the end-user behavior by analyzing the data (using statistical and visualization tools available in SPSS and Excel) collected from Finnish panelists owning a Nokia phone based on the S60 platform. The results of the handset-based measurement analysis highlight the usage of different applications, the usage of different access networks (e.g. WCDMA, GPRS, EDGE and WLAN) and the daily data usage of WLAN and non-WLAN users with mobile handsets. In addition to the handset-based measurement analysis, in this thesis, a system dynamics model is proposed (using Vensim PLE software) to study how network connectivity will be provided to indoor located devices in the future. The model is developed based on the scenarios for the future of the local area access provisioning and consists of four interrelated domains: User (Demand) domain, Infrastructure (Supply) domain, Spectrum Regulation and Technology (Supply) domain and Market Share domain. The domains focused on end-user dynamics, infrastructure dynamics, spectrum regulation and technology dynamics and market share dynamics, respectively. The main objective of developing the model is not to find and simulate exact numerical values but to gain a broad level of understanding about the dynamics of forces that affect the future of local area access provisioning. The system dynamics model proposed in this thesis mainly addresses the question, "what are the possible evolution paths (business models) of the future of the local area access provisioning?" and highlight the dynamics of forces that influence the structure and development of network connectivity to indoor located devices over the next 6 years (2009-2015).

Description

Supervisor

Hämmäinen, Heikki

Thesis advisor

Smura, Timo
Casey, Thomas

Keywords

business model, local area access provisioning, mobile service, system dynamics

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