The power of emerging economics : a global business paradigm shift in the telecommunication industry

When geographers study the world and its features, distance is one of the basic measures they use to describe the patterns they observe. Distance is, however, an elastic concept. Physical distance has played the dominant role in the world's geo-politics, global economy and international trade in last centuries. But in recent times - the impact of physical distance has been diminished and transformed by the effect and advancement of IT & Telecommunication technology. Physical distance has been transformed into virtual distance. Communication from one end of the world to other has become - "Just a click away in a computer or a few finger tips in our cell phone." The focus of this thesis is on two closely related sets of questions. - (I) "How is the state of telecommunication technology in emerging countries changing? How does this technological advancement affect the productivity and international competitiveness of these economies? (II) How does this telecommunication industry development in emerging economies shifting the overall global business paradigm of the telecommunication industry and is this shift permanent or temporary? In this thesis, I will first focus on the background of world telecommunication industry and the market segmentation based on: (I) Key Economic Indicator of Telecom industry (ARPU - Average revenue per user) and (II) Technology. I will then analyze the recent development of world telecommunication industry and conduct case studies on eight global telecom operators (Vodafone, AT&T, Telenor, SingTel, China Mobile, Orascom, America Movil, and Reliance). This analysis will focus on the present situation of global telecom industry, worldwide investment in this sector, market tier & user segments, and buying power of the emerging economies. At this point, I will introduce and examine whether the business models being developed in these emerging economies are likely to impact the global economy.

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Asad, Rehan A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Donald R. Lessard.

• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43174

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/43174