IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/itse23/277957.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Virtualised and open RAN role in overhaul of mobile network sharing regulation in Europe for 5G rollout

Author

Listed:
  • Földes, Gábor

Abstract

There is an investment gap to reach EU Digital Decade 2030 connectivity targets, requires from operators to provide full broadband fixed and mobile coverage. The reason is the lack of economies of scale, therefore return on investment often lags behind cost of capital in fragmented European national markets. Operators argue for market consolidation in form of horizontal merger, or at least market cooperation, like mobile network sharing. Operators accept horizontal production agreement network sharing as a second best solution, however the bottleneck is the regulatory approval of urban full (active and passive) radio access network (RAN) sharing. Regulators still insist on parallel infrastructure-based competition instead of service-based competition on the same infrastructure. Virtualisation and open RAN technology enablers of mobile 5G transform the industry from closed to open market organisations, where multivendor upstream market competition also strengthen operator downstream and end-user retail market competitions. The research question focused on how virtualized and open RAN with open market multivendor concept could mitigate regulatory anticompetitive concerns of network sharing in high density urban areas in end-user mobile services downstream market competition. The research methodology built on qualitative techniques due to new technology development and limited available data. Exploratory analysis covers relevant academic, research institutes and consultancy papers. Secondary market insight data used for market development analysis. The main finding is that, virtualised and open RAN intensifies competition, differentiation and innovation at vendor upstream market that has similar spillover effect to operator downstream and end-user retail markets. Due to network function virtualisation, software-based competition would permit higher economies of scale via network sharing at least in the physical hardware infrastructure segment, not only in passive, but also for active assets. The novelty of the paper to focus on the bottleneck of mobile network sharing approval in case of urban active RAN sharing and connects with open RAN as a potential mitigation opportunity to resolve regulatory uncertainty and promote an issue of new regulatory guidance on mobile network sharing, helping both operators and customers, resulting a social welfare increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Földes, Gábor, 2023. "Virtualised and open RAN role in overhaul of mobile network sharing regulation in Europe for 5G rollout," 32nd European Regional ITS Conference, Madrid 2023: Realising the digital decade in the European Union – Easier said than done? 277957, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse23:277957
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/277957/1/Foldes.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philippe Aghion & Nick Bloom & Richard Blundell & Rachel Griffith & Peter Howitt, 2005. "Competition and Innovation: an Inverted-U Relationship," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 701-728.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Do Private Equity Owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 442-446, May.
    2. Herrmann, Roland & Schröck, Rebecca, 2011. "Determinanten des Innovationserfolgs: eine Analyse mit Scannerdaten für den deutschen Joghurtmarkt," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 60(03), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Liliana Meza-González & Jaime Marie Sepulveda, 2019. "The impact of competition with China in the US market on innovation in Mexican manufacturing firms," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Patrick Legros & Andrew F. Newman & Eugenio Proto, 2014. "Smithian Growth through Creative Organization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 796-811, December.
    5. Kumar, Sanjesh & Singh, Baljeet, 2019. "Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-86.
    6. Christos A Makridis & Andrew A Borkowski & Gil Alterovitz, 2024. "Perspectives on advancing innovation and human flourishing through a network of AI institutes," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 557-562.
    7. Qing Li & Long Hai Vo, 2021. "Intangible Capital and Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of Vietnamese Enterprises," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 21-02, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    8. Ufuk Akcigit & Sina T. Ates, 2023. "What Happened to US Business Dynamism?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(8), pages 2059-2124.
    9. Christian Rammer & Gastón P Fernández & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2021. "Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Innovation: Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 674605, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    10. Alberto BUCCI, 2004. "Economic growth in an enlarged Europe: the human capital and R&D dimensions," Departmental Working Papers 2004-22, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    11. repec:use:tkiwps:1818 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Barge-Gil, Andrés & López, Alberto, 2014. "R&D determinants: Accounting for the differences between research and development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1634-1648.
    13. Fabiano Schivardi & Eliana Viviano, 2007. "Entry barriers in Italian retail trade," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 616, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Bruno Amable & Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Kirsten Ralf, 2004. ""Deep Pockets": Research and Development Persistence and Economic Growth," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2004 47, Money Macro and Finance Research Group, revised 13 Oct 2004.
    15. Boone, J., 2003. "Optimal Competition : A Benchmark for Competition Policy," Discussion Paper 2003-3, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    16. Koellinger, Ph.D. & Schade, C., 2010. "The Influence of Installed Technologies on Future Adoption Decisions: Empirical Evidence from E-Business," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2010-012-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    17. Polemis, Michael & Tselekounis, Markos, 2019. "Does deregulation drive innovation intensity? Lessons learned from the OECD telecommunications sector," MPRA Paper 92770, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Raquel Ortega-Argilés, 2022. "The evolution of regional entrepreneurship policies: “no one size fits all”," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(3), pages 585-610, December.
    19. Aghion, Philippe & Akcigit, Ufuk & Howitt, Peter, 2014. "What Do We Learn From Schumpeterian Growth Theory?," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 515-563, Elsevier.
    20. Caiyue Ouyang & Xin Wang & Jiacai Xiong, 2019. "Do Controlling Shareholders Who Pledged Their Shares Affect Sustainable Development? An Investigation Based on the Perspective of Corporate Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, May.
    21. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    network sharing; competition regulation; virtualisation; open RAN; 5G; cost efficiency; economies of scale;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:itse23:277957. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.itseurope.org/ .

    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.