The Business Case 1 (BC1) investigates and evaluates the viability of the business for an UMTS operator to supplement its UMTS bandwidth and coverage with broadband wireless LAN (WLAN) technology in the city centres and hot spot indoor areas. Most likely there is going to be competing providers for broadband wireless access, with smaller capital investments, but the UMTS operator has potential advantage from the seamless service coverage and can utilise the synergy by resource and equipment reuse between these two types of network concepts. To capture the bulk of the users and usage is vital for the UMTS operator who has, in some countries, paid heavily for the license or in other countries has the burden to build up rapidly an ubiquitous coverage. The operator's revenue share of the provided services should be as high as possible, because the basic connectivity is more and more seen as a commodity and only the real value adding content or service can boost the spending on 3G services.
The BC2 will investigate the eligibility of the MVNO as a business model, taking into account the constraints from the actual MNOs' position and strategies in the developing 3G markets - what kind of role they are prepared to give for the MVNOs who are totally dependent on them. Regulatory intervention do not promise much for full MVNOs, in many markets, but the different models for MVNO access are considered. To build up mutually beneficial co-operation with different players is probably the key for a viable MVNO case.
The BC3 concentrates on evaluating the economics of various fixed broadband access technologies. There are several technological solutions available that can be used for different customer segments and geographical areas. Most of the options involve introduction of fibre cables in the access network. Emphasis will be on comparing FSAN network structure with SDH based solutions and Ethernet access architectures including Gigabit Ethernet Technology.
The BC4 tackles the same basic problem as BC3, i.e. how to provide broadband fixed access economically with the following difference. In many countries there is a high level of interest to provide broadband access also in areas and sectors where the economic prerequisites for offering broadband services are rather poor. Often this translates into rural areas. TONIC BC4 will analyse these cases and quantify the additional costs required to build out a broadband network in these areas based using single or hybrid technological solutions
For more detailed information on TONIC business cases, see the deliverable 1.