July 2009 -- Strategic investments by wireless carriers and others are generating rapid development of the “mobile ecology,” increasing modularity even while embracing and extending vertical controls. Coordination among complementary asset owners and simultaneous rivalry among platforms suggests that the process of creative destruction is robust. Moreover, innovation “at the edge” is vibrant, with smartphone suppliers Research in Motion (Blackberry), Apple (iPhone), Google (gPhone), among others, driving carrier strategies. That vertical network policies help generate welfare gains is apparent via revealed consumer preferences, the advanced state of technology under “strong bundling” in Japan, and the fact that even ostensibly “open” platforms retain an important measure of vertical control, efficiencies yielding value in rivalry against competing platforms.
Mobile phones are the “killer app” of the Information Age. By year-end 2007, wireless networks enlisted 3.3 billion subscribers globally, more than one-half of every living man, woman and child. This mass-market success puts mobile penetration far above fixed line telephony, with a mere 1.3 billion subscribers, and fixed line Internet access, with about 1.5 billion subscribers. Indeed, the most exciting growth opportunities for “online” applications are riding on connectivity via the “wireless web.” Organizations such as the World Bank now look to such emerging markets as driving economic growth. “The cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development," opines Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Economics at Columbia University. And a N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE queries: “Can the cell phone help cure global poverty?”
Citation
"Modular Confines of Mobile Networks: Are iPhones iPhony?" by Thomas Hazlett, GMU/Microsoft Conference, May 7, 2009, Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett, GMU/Microsoft Conference
Related Scholarship
"Tragedy T.V.: Rights Fragmentation and the Junk Band Problem" by Thomas Hazlett, October 2, 2009 (forthcoming publication Spring 2010), Quick Links: Gridlock Economy Conference
"U.S. Wireless License Auctions: 1994-2009" by Thomas Hazlett, ACCC Conference in Brisbane, Australia, July 14, 2009, Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett"
A Welfare Analysis of Spectrum Allocation Policies” by Thomas W. Hazlett & Roberto E. Muñoz, 40 RAND Journal of Economics 424 - 454 (2009), Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett, Roberto E. Muñoz
"Property Rights and Wireless License Values" by Thomas W. Hazlett, 51 Journal of Law and Economics 563-98 (August 2008), Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett
"A Law & Economics Approach to Spectrum Property Rights: A Response to Professors Weiser & Hatfield" by Thomas W. Hazlett, 15 George Mason Law Review 975-1023 (June 2008), a response to "Spectrum Policy Reform and the Next Frontier of Property Rights" by Philip J. Weiser & Dale Hatfield, 15 George Mason Law Review 549-609 (Spring 2008), Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett
"A Rejoinder to Weiser and Hatfield on Spectrum Rights" by
Thomas W. Hazlett, 15 George Mason Law Review 1031-39 (June 2008), a rejoinder to: "Property Rights in Spectrum: A Reply to Hazlett" by Philip J. Weiser & Dale Hatfield, 15 George Mason Law Review 1025-30 (June 2008), Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett
"Optimal Abolition of FCC Spectrum Allocation" by
Thomas W. Hazlett, 22 Journal of Economic Perspectives 103-28 (Winter 2008), Quick Links: Thomas Hazlett
