Paper Info
Title
Optimal Number Of Mobile Service Providers In India: Trade-Off Between Efficiency And Competition
Abstract
With 225 million subscribers, India has the world's third largest mobile subscriber base in the world. The Indian mobile industry is also one of the most competitive in the world with 4-7 operators in each service area. A large number of operators bring competition and its associated benefits such as decrease in price and hence corresponding growth of the market. On the other hand in the presence of economies of scale, too many operators may result in inefficient scales and high unit costs. This article analyses the trade-off between competition and economies of scale by estimating the production function for mobile subscribers and traffic carried. Analysis of panel data reveals the existence of economies of scale in the Indian mobile sector. We then derive an upper bound on the optimal number of operators in each license area and discuss policy implications.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.4018/jbdcn.2008070104
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING
Keywords
Field
DocType
competition, economies of scale, mobile services, production function, telecom policy, telecom regulation
Telecom infrastructure sharing,Mobile QoS,Enhanced Telecom Operations Map,Computer science,Mobile service,Computer network,Economies of scale
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
4
3
1548-0631
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.50
0
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Rohit Prasad160.96
Varadharajan Sridhar214110.19