Quantitative modeling of public local area access value network configurations

Abstract:
The growing amount of mobile data traffic increases the demand for local area network deployments and is therefore likely to have an effect on the mobile communications ecosystem. Several alternative value network configurations exist giving new business opportunities to different actors, but the attractiveness and the success of local area access provisioning remains uncertain. This study analyzes the business of public local area access from the point of view of two potential providers: mobile operators and service application providers. A quantitative techno-economic model is constructed to quantify the costs and required revenues of operating public LA access networks. The results show that the revenue requirements vary between public LA venue types and value network configurations.