IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/rneart/v19y2020i3p189-219n2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobile Telephony in Emerging Markets: The Importance of Dual-SIM Phones

Author

Listed:
  • Andersson Kjetil

    (University of Agder, School of Business and Law, Department of Economics and Finance, Universitetsveien 19, N-4630Kristiansand, Norway)

  • Göller Daniel

    (University of Agder, School of Business and Law, Department of Economics and Finance, Universitetsveien 19, N-4630Kristiansand, Norway)

Abstract

A substantial share of customers in emerging markets use dual-SIM phones and subscribe to two mobile networks. A primary motive for so called multi-simming is to take advantage of cheap on-net services from both networks. In our modelling effort, we augment the seminal model of competing telephone networks á la Laffont, Rey and Tirole (1998b) by a segment of flexible price hunters that may choose to multi-sim. According to our findings, in equilibrium, the networks set a high off-net price in the linear tariffs to achieve segmentation. This induces the price hunters to multi-sim. We show that increased deployment of dual-SIM phones may induce a mixing equilibrium with high expected on-net prices. Thus, somewhat paradoxically, deployment of a technology that increases substitutability, and thereby competition, may end up raising prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson Kjetil & Göller Daniel, 2020. "Mobile Telephony in Emerging Markets: The Importance of Dual-SIM Phones," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(3), pages 189-219, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rneart:v:19:y:2020:i:3:p:189-219:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/rne-2020-0040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/rne-2020-0040
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/rne-2020-0040?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    network competition; multi-sim; dual-SIM phones; price discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:rneart:v:19:y:2020:i:3:p:189-219:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.