Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are an increasingly growing segment of the market for wireless services. MVNOs do not own their own network infrastructure and so must cooperate with existing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to gain access to the network infrastructure needed to enter this market. Cooperating with an MVNO is a non-trivial decision for an MNO in part because the MVNO may then become a potential competitor for customers. One motive for entering into such an arrangement is that the MVNO receives an added value from serving customers beyond what it earns from charging them for wireless service. We study a game theoretic model for the cooperation and competition between an MNO and such an added value MVNO based on models for price competition with congestible resources. Our model captures two different dimensions of how an MNO may cooperate. The first dimension is the payment scheme between the MNO and the MVNO. The second dimension is the access priority that the MNO chooses to offer to the MVNO's customers. We characterize the pros and cons of different cooperation modes and analyze the optimal cooperation mode under different conditions.
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Cross-Network Prioritized Sharing: An Added Value MVNO’s Perspective
We analyze the prioritized sharing between an added
value Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) and multiple
Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). An added value MVNO is
one which earns added revenue from wireless users in addition
to the revenue it directly collects for providing them wireless
service. To offer service, an MVNO needs to contract with one
or more MNOs to utilize their networks. Agreeing on such a
contract requires the MNOs to consider the impact on their
revenue from allowing the MVNO to enter the market as well
as the possibility that other MNOs will cooperate. To further
protect their customers, the MNOs may prioritize their direct
customers over those of the MVNO. We establish a multi-stage
game to analyze the equilibrium decisions of the MVNO, MNOs,
and users in such a setting. In particular, we characterize the
condition under which the MVNO can collaborate with the
MNOs. The results show that the MVNO tends to cooperate
with the MNOs when the band resources are limited and the
added value is significant. When there is significant difference
in band resources among the MNOs, the MVNO first considers
cooperating with the MNO with a smaller band. We also consider
the case when the users also have access to unlicensed spectrum.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1701921
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10178784
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE INFOCOM
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1549 to 1557
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/INFOCOM.2019.8737636
