Analyzing the Economic Effects of Past Mobile Network Sharing Deals for Future Network Deployment

The increase in data traffic calls for investment in mobile networks; however, the saturating revenue of mobile broadband and increasing capital expenditure are discouraging mobile operators from investing in next‐generation mobile networks. Mobile network sharing is a viable solution for operators and regulators to resolve this dilemma. This research uses a difference‐in‐differences analysis of 33 operators (including 11 control operators) to empirically evaluate the cost reduction effect of mobile network sharing. The results indicate a reduction in overall operating expenditure and short‐term capital expenditure by national roaming. This finding implies that future technology and standards development should focus on flexible network operation and maintenance, energy efficiency, and maximizing economies of scale in radio access networks. Furthermore, mobile network sharing will become more viable and relevant in a 5G network deployment as spectrum bands are likely to increase the total cost of ownership of mobile networks and technical enablers will facilitate network sharing.