Why Mobile Wireless Carriers Share Networks and Services Provisioning

This paper provides a theory that empirically examines why mobile wireless carriers share the costs of building networks and provisioning wireless services. Of the cost drivers of network operators, the most influential on the industry’s dynamics are capital investments, which include network infrastructure investments. As the industry evolves, players strive to streamline their services, applications, revenue, and business models to revive this industry. In this regard, one model in particular is the network operators’, which shares network investments and service provisioning expenses to reduce their total expenditures while strengthening their financial liquidity. In this paper, the authors integrate research results to provide a new theory on network sharing with concepts and viewpoints that have been developed based on extensive studies of network sharing adopted by network operators and service providers across the world during the past decade.