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- Bohlin, Erik, 1961, et al.
(författare)
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Broadband universal service in Europe: A review of policy consultations 2005-2010
- 2010
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Ingår i: Communications & Strategies. ; 80:4th quarter, s. 21-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recognition of the growing importance of broadband to the public presents challenges for policy-makers in introducing efficient strategies, not only to serve the increasing demand for broadband among people in society but also to increase their economic contribution both in the short run and in the long run. Different measures and strategies have been implemented in many countries and regions in order to encourage broadband deployment. Among them, the inclusion of broadband in the scope of universal service has been discussed.In the European Union, the discussion on broadening the scope of the Universal Service Directive (USD) to include broadband has been raised since the first periodical review in 2005. At that time, the European Commission concluded that only a small, although rapidly growing, minority of European consumers currently make use of broadband services. Therefore, the conditions for including broadband services within the scope of universal service as set out in the USD were not fulfilled. Later, the European Commission launched the second periodical review of universal service in 2008 with the preliminary conclusion that broadband has not yet reached the majority of people, implying that the conditions of the USD for expanding the scope of universal service were not yet fulfilled. However, the public consultation on broadening the scope of the USD to include broadband has been opened since March 2010 and was last on May 7, 2010. In the meantime, the public workshop organized in the context of the public consultation on universal service principles in e-communications was held on March 30, 2010. The workshop provided wide-ranging views on the topic, including an assessment of the cost of broadband availability and also the rapid change of broadband penetration rate throughout Europe.Against this background, this paper provides an analytical survey of the current state and trends of universal service with focus on broadband access in the European Union. First it presents an overview of broadband deployment and regulation in Europe. Then, it analyzes the USD reviews by taking into account the previous and the recent review, in particular by comparing the discourse evolution of the public submissions from stakeholders in the two consultations. A framework to evaluate broadband universal service will be provided. In conclusion, the paper will identify selected issues regarding broadband universal service in Europe, especially the pros and cons of broadband universal service
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| 7. |
- Annafari, Tsani, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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A socio-economic exploration of mobile phone service have-nots in Sweden
- 2014
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Ingår i: New Media and Society. - : SAGE Publications. - 1461-4448 .- 1461-7315. ; 16:3, s. 415-433
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most studies in the mobile communication field focus on the acceptance of the technology rather than the resistance of it, a trend that makes researchers try to understand only the powerful actors in society. Instead, this paper explores the socio-economic characteristics of mobile phone service have-nots. Based on an analysis of samples from three consecutive nationwide annual surveys in Sweden, this study finds that two socio-economic factors - age and the household income - remain significant to explain non-usage of mobile phone services. Other variables dynamically change over time without a significant effect. This finding supports the argument that most socio-economic factors are transient at different stages of the adoption of innovation. Since the benefits of mobile phones are related to social networks (the more people you know, the more beneficial), it is not surprising that, in the long run, elderly people with low income, who typically have a decreasing social network, find this technology no longer purposeful and finally refuse it. This indicates that the status of the have-nots may not reflect socio-economic inequalities in general, but rather individuals' preference when managing their social situation. This is relevant with the argument that a universal service policy should be based on connectivity, that is, people's need for communication rather than solely promoting subsidizing a particular technology or service. The policy, therefore, should consider the technological frame sharing - the interpretation of the technology shared by members of a relevant social group, that is, users, service providers and regulators, to bring a more socially constructed technology that can protect individuals with less socio-economic power from being socially excluded.
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| 8. |
- Annafari, Tsani, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Counting active SIM cards or subscribers: Implications for research and policy studies
- 2009
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Telecommunication and Techno-Economics, Stockholm, June 15-16 2009.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of mobile density as international comparative statistics on access and use of mobile phone raises some concern about inaccuracies with potential adverse effects on decision-making. This study reviews and highlights the problematic inaccuracies and their implications for research and policy. It will provide some simple cases and descriptive statistics as evidence and proposes a new approach to determine and interpret mobile density in a more accurate way
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| 9. |
- Annafari, Tsani, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Empirical exploration of factors that determine multiple mobile phone subscriptions
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Mobile Communications. - : Inderscience Publishers. - 1741-5217 .- 1470-949X. ; 12:1, s. 12-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study addresses the factors driving multiple mobile phone subscriptions by consumers in the Swedish market. The generalised Poisson model (GPR) is applied to count data obtained from two national annual surveys. The results show that business subscription and household size are consistently the main predictors of the multiple mobile phone subscriptions. This indicates that organisations, i. e., company and household, are important units of consumers in the mobile market that potential for expanding the consumers base. Demographics characteristics such as age, income and gender in addition to the use of mobile internet are also found as significant predictor. The operator could gain from this situation by applying relevant marketing strategies to the targeted consumers' segment as well as tightening the network effect to the relevant consumers' social group. This may be done by encouraging them to have additional subscriptions from the same operator or intra-operator multiple subscriptions, for instance through service bundling or collective subscriptions.
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- Annafari, Tsani, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating Mobile Phone Non-subscribers and Quasi-subscribers by Sampling
- 2009
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Ingår i: 2009 Global Information Infrastructure Symposium, GIIS '09; Hammemet; Tunisia; 23 June 2009 through 26 June 2009. - 9781424446230 ; , s. Art. no. 5307104-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper advances a new concept, quasi-subscribers, to define the incidence of mobile phone multiple subscriptions. Through survey data, the paper shows that in Sweden the number of quasi-subscribers constitutes a significant portion of the mobile phone subscribers. Hence, there is a significant bias in the traditional method of measuring mobile subscribers which is mostly based on the number of subscriptions and active SIM cards in the population. This situation is likely to hold for many other countries. Such a bias may contribute to faulty policy, strategic and research analysis, with possibly unfavorable consequences for decision-making that is based on such analysis.
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