The financing of mobile broadband data networks for public safety agencies is a pressing issue all across Europe where those networks are needed to support new applications of the public safety administration. The study compares dedicated and commercial network-based solutions, both of which supply LTE mobile broadband data services to Finnish PSS (Public Safety and Security) agencies in the 700 MHz band. The business case for a new PSS mobile data network is a sum of the additional values (i.e. the improved service, internal efficiency and impact on GDP) that would be yielded to society minus the costs to deliver those new services. In the commercial network case it is presumed that the commercial operator has already built the network and only additional costs, such as hardening of the existing network, are taken into account in addition to the monthly fee defined according to the heavy business user profile. In the dedicated network case it is assumed that the network is built utilizing also the existing TETRA network sites and services. The time frame of the business case calculation is the next ten years. Based on the study, the commercial mobile service is competitive in rural areas - if non-availability issues such as the disruption of the power supply are improved as well as some crucial functionality for PSS users are added. The business case for the dedicated LTE network is better than that of the commercial network when the population density is greater than 100...200 persons per km2. For the areas located in between rural and urban areas, either a dedicated LTE network or a commercial-based solution would yield the highest surplus to society, depending on the local circumstances of each area. The study concludes with the proposal that the shared spectrum should be used by both commercial and public safety users - the spectrum being allocated for public safety users in urban areas, while in other areas being freely usable by any mobile subscriber. A hybrid solution, where the PSS mobile service is implemented using both the dedicated network and the commercial networks is proposed.

The growth of mobile Internet usage is raising concerns about the sufficiency of capacity in networks. Therefore, several technical solutions are currently being developed and standardized to increase the efficiency in the radio access and on the entire end-to-end Internet path. If successfully deployed, these technologies will have a significant impact on the Internet connectivity market, especially the mobile access competition. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the different evolution paths of the mobile access market which developments in technical, economic and regulatory domains could induce in the future. This paper envisions operator and end-user centric competition scenarios and compares them against the current vertical competition between mobile network operators (MNOs). The analysis shows that the degree of competition in the mobile access in the future is highly dependent on the level of transaction and switching costs. The end user scenario with related multipath protocol deployments intensifies the competition more than the operator scenario enabled by software-based dynamic spectrum management.

This paper presents a recent profile of IP data traffic in GPRS/UMTS core networks. The analysis in this paper is based on Layer 3 and 4 headers of packets which we measured in two commercial GPRS/UMTS networks at the end of 2008. We characterize traffic generated with Windows and Symbian devices which are regarded as major operating systems for laptops and mobile handsets in our datasets, respectively. Firstly, we describe the traffic characteristics by device types from the viewpoints of individual flows. After that, we introduce a notion of flow group which has a better capability to represent device-level usage than individual flows. In addition to presenting the differences of traffic characteristics between both device types, we also argue that the notion of flow group is beneficial for identifying operating systems of mobile devices and for alleviating uncertainties in the results of application identification according only to Layer 4 information.

Internet services shake the dynamics of the mobile industry. This paper studies the future of mobile voice with a scenario analysis method. A group of industry experts is interviewed to obtain a set of variables reflecting the uncertainties of the mobile voice market. These variables are used in describing the future evolution of mobile voice. With iterative interviews the two most important variables (mobile market structure and access mode in multi-radio networks) are defined, and four industry scenarios introduced. The mobile industry is found to be on a verge of horisontalization. The structural form of the market determines how mobile voice services are deployed in the future. The mobile industry is gradually moving towards the Internet. In this evolution, alternative wireless technologies are seen as the main source of disruption, with either one-operator or multi-operator terminal support. Also the regulation of mobile networks and services is found to play a significant role. Together the dominant market form (horizontal or vertical orientation) and techno-economic context (single-operator or multi-operator model) determine whether incumbent operators will retain strong position in the future.

Mobile peer-to-peer (MP2P) services are currently emerging due to the growing experimentation in both the academia and the industry. This paper presents the initial results of a scenario analysis applied to MP2P services. We also discuss the scenario methodology in general. We have possibly identified the most significant uncertainties related to MP2P services and the most essential trends behind the uncertainties. We conclude by presenting initial scenarios. Our future aim is to complete a full scenario analysis on MP2P based on the results presented in this paper.

The concept of peer-to-peer has been receiving greater attention in recent years. The initial surge in popularity among users is mainly attributed to free content delivery and easier availability. However, such services lack a profitable business model for the players involved. Moreover, it has been a phenomenon seen largely in fixed Internet. With the emergence of mobile data services, peer-to-peer has emerged as a possible candidate for content delivery over mobile networks such as GPRS and UMTS. In this paper, we study the case for peer-to-peer content delivery over mobile networks by finding answers to questions such as "when", "why" and "how". We analyse the conditions necessary for a mobile operator to achieve profitability using peer-to-peer mode of content delivery, the reasons why mobile networks are in a better position to exploit the benefits of this mode of delivery and the possible strategies for successful rollout of services using peer-to-peer mode of delivery.

An open architecture for distributed form management is described. The model employs object-orientation in describing organizational units as well as individual users as entities with uniform external interfaces. Each entity is represented by an autonomous user agent which operates on local and migrating forms . The form concept encapsulates data, layout, and rules into a unified object which is the basic unit of presentation, processing, storage, and communication. All functionality of the system appears in rules of form classes and all data in instances of these form classes. This approach applies the techniques of computer supported cooperative work to provide a flexible mechanism for interpersonal, intraoffice, and interoffice procedures. The main challenge is to organize the collaboration without affecting the autonomy of individual user agents. In this respect, the contribution of the model is the mechanism for form migration. The dynamic integration of forms into different agents is solved with the coordinated interchange of form classes. A specific inheritance scheme provides the desired flexibility by separating the interrelated private and public form operations within each agent. The paper first describes the architecture by starting from a single agent and moving progressively towards a set of cooperating agents. Then an agent implementation called PAGES is described, experiences reported, and the open issues discussed. A typical distributed ordering procedure is used as an example throughout the text.