Telecommunications Policy最新文献

Field of research

This research falls under the field of mobile broadband 4G/5G networks for public safety communications and focuses specifically on the public safety services business of mobile network operators (MNOs).

Purpose

This research contributes a qualitative model of MNOs’ business risks in providing public safety services. The risk assessment covers the business model used in European public safety mobile broadband projects.

Methods and data

A qualitative method was chosen for the research. The risk model used was an influence diagram with the causal taxonomy of risk, which is commonly used for qualitative and quantitative causal models based on Bayesian networks. The Delphi method was employed through the use of an expert panel to create the risk model. The expert panel's risk assessment was conducted using a case study that followed the model of European public safety projects.

Findings

The risk model shows that business risks are, in many ways, a threat to the financial goals of MNOs' public safety business. These risks could result in additional costs, contractual penalties, and lost service revenue. Additionally, there is potential for negative impacts on MNOs’ regular business, which can lead to a loss of market share and revenue.

Value

This research provides new insights into MNOs’ business risks in next-generation public safety services. Procurement authorities are advised to use the results in the business model and contract planning for public safety procurements. MNOs can gain advantages from these results by enhancing their understanding of the potential business risks, their consequences, and how to control and mitigate them in public safety projects.

Space sector systems enable numerous critical functions and are often integrated into existing telecommunications infrastructure to enhance network connectivity coverage and capacity. Amid escalating cyber threats, this paper examines the application of international law to cyber operations targeting space infrastructure, addressing a critical gap in discourse. While declarations by global entities affirm the applicability of international law to cyberattacks, the complexities of cyberspace, compounded by the unique aspects of space infrastructure, pose challenges in implementation. Recognizing the absence of global cyber law and a lack of customary international law regarding cyber operations on space infrastructure, this study provides one of the first legal examinations via case analysis of cyberattacks on space infrastructures, both terrestrial and orbital, through the lens of international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict, and outer space law. This paper adopts a comprehensive approach, considering perspectives from differing national stances as we review three main principles of international law: the general principle of sovereignty, the prohibition of intervention, and the prohibition of the use of force. Based on our analysis of three hypothetical but realistic cyber operation scenarios, international law can apply to cyberattacks on space infrastructure, and violations can occur if all conditions of a given law are met and attribution can be made to a state actor. Yet, applying these laws in a cyber context has proven to cause some complexities and disagreements, and it would be a mistake to ignore the reality that there is still significant ambiguity and varying interpretations, which could impede the unequivocal enforcement and application of these laws in such scenarios.

This paper examines the value that households place on very high-speed internet access, explicitly focusing on the impact of eligibility for Fiber to the Home (FTTH) technology on property prices. Using a Spatial Discontinuity Design based on the border of fiber eligibility zones which have significantly expanded under France’s Très Haut-Débit plan, I find that FTTH eligibility is a significant determinant of property prices, with an average increase of 0.9 percent. I also consider heterogeneities in FTTH valuation, accounting for socioeconomic characteristics, local factors, and the performance of legacy copper networks. These findings highlight the growing importance of fast and reliable broadband access for households and have important implications for policymakers and Internet service providers.

This paper examines the role of civil society in shaping content moderation governance arrangements in the United States. Drawing on prior research that recognizes the importance of civil society in shaping policy, this article analyzes the experiences of civil society practitioners engaged in content moderation activism. Based on in-depth original interviews with civil society practitioners, I demonstrate how civil society's activity in this space aligns with known regulatory standard-setting process competencies and suggest advocacy work benefits from the power of coalition lobbying and social capital. Moreover, I highlight the sense of frustration from some practitioners that they are not compensated by firms for their monitoring and reporting work that improves platforms' products, and I offer preliminary reasons for why practitioners contest moderation norms. The paper's insights contribute to the study of platform governance by illuminating informal mechanisms utilized by civil society, which holds broader implications for understanding the dynamics of non-state actors in shaping online platforms and their policies.

Diversifying business portfolios and creating new value has been considered essential strategy for telecommunications companies (telcos) to survive and grow. To successfully execute this strategy, telcos need to find and focus on promising industries, called killer domains. However, few studies have tried to develop criteria for identifying killer domains for telcos' business diversification. This study develops comprehensive evaluation criteria and explores killer domains for Canadian and Korean telcos. This study adopted the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and surveyed 23 telecommunication experts in Canada and 22 in Korea. Data analysis found that expected benefit is the most important criterion in decision-making for a telco's business diversification, followed by resource fit and the expected cost. There were no significant differences in the relative importance of alternative domains in Korea, but in Canada, digital healthcare was the most crucial domain for Canadian telcos, followed by the security and immersive content industry. The result of this study provides implications for practitioners' and policymakers' decision-making regarding business diversification strategies in the telecommunication industry.

Digital transformation has received widespread academic, policy and media attention in the last few years, amid rapid technological developments, geopolitical tensions and an aggressive media strategy launched by a number of Silicon Valley CEOs. Post-pandemic, the task of tracing the relevant scenarios for technological change and evaluating their social consequences has become more difficult, partly due to the rise of artificial intelligence. This special issue explores novel lines of inquiry in the study of Internet governance at a critical juncture in its evolution, zooming in on three important trends: (1) the public attempts to refocus on infrastructure (control); (2) the stricter regulation of social media, partly in response to the push from civil society to address violent behaviour online; and (3) the renewed contestation over representation in Internet governance, where youth and other historically underrepresented groups are struggling to achieve better visibility for their interests. The articles in this special issue underline that new forms of contention by a variety of actors are emerging from “within” the existing governance mechanisms. However, the most successful initiatives are mainly from governments.

Female internet use is abysmally low (17.48%) in Nigeria, and it has become an issue of serious concern due to its negative impact on their health and economic well-being. While most of the scholarly debates centers on the influence of individual socio-economic characteristics and geographical factors to understand and improve female internet use, this study contributes to the literature by interrogating the role of women's experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and other socio-economic and geographical factors based on the social theory of internet use. We conduct spatial and logistic regression analyses using the 2018 cross-sectional Demographic and Health Survey of 41,821 women aged 15–49. The spatial analysis shows a significant concentration of female internet non-use in the Northern region relative to the South, while the binary logistic regression analysis indicates that the experience of IPV, age, wealth status, education, being married, urban location, and residing in Northern Nigeria are significant predictors of female internet use. The study recommends tailoring support systems and interventions that acknowledge the unique challenges faced by survivors of IPV and the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of women to achieve greater internet use.

Television distribution has changed profoundly over the past 10–15 years. Now increasingly geared towards streaming, broadcasting's value chain hinges on content delivery networks (CDNs) to reach audiences. CDNs are important for content quality, as they constitute the part of the chain that stores and transmits data from broadcasters to the end-user. In this article, we investigate what this value chain shift means for television distribution in Norway, a country where global actors like Akamai and Amazon's CloudFront dominate the CDN market. Based on seven whiteboard-based, co-creation sessions with 15 industry experts representing broadcasters, telecoms, regulators and interest organisations, a value chain analysis reveals that the distribution part of the chain is outsourced and modular. As the technology of television distribution becomes increasingly outsourced, we ask what this means for television's autonomy as a universal service provider.

As the global entertainment and media market is expected to multiply, media companies, such as streaming services, television networks, and broadcasting companies, play critical roles in providing TV and movie content, the industry's fuel. Almost all players of small and large sizes in the industry spend enormous resources on content and expand their investment to retain global and regional content to win the battle of viewership. However, the efficiency of investments varies for media companies. Measuring efficiency has been crucial as all firms strive to achieve better productivity. In particular, estimating the efficiencies and productivities of firms producing and offering intangible assets, such as TV and movie content, and valuing the content on firm performance are challenging. With our longitudinal data about local and global media companies from 2019 to 2022, we first used a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to answer which firms in the media industry have effectively exploited their resources to achieve better firm performance. In addition, with the Malmquist analysis, we show how the efficiencies and productivity of content providers change along with the dynamics of the media industry that the media industry has recently faced. Our understanding of the global media companies' efficiencies from diverse perspectives offers several theoretical and practical implications for the streams of efficiencies and competition in the media industry.