Technology policy research of Korea - mobile platform and network neutrality

Summary

The technology policy from the government always plays a critical role in the industry. In the research of [1], the authors intended to measure the efficiency difference before and after the platform standardization policy formulation and implementation (WIPI). They adopted the idea of "efficiency frontier"to measure the mobile company performance difference. According to their empirical finding, the government-led mobile platform standardization policy is negatively affecting the mobile companies' efficient, compare to the company independent to the mobile network operators. The author suggested the government should play a supporting-role in the policy regulation.

In paper [2], the author discussed the network neutrality effects on new internet application services. They proposed a simulation experiment to examine the service diffusion in different network regulation settings. They found the "more latency sensitivity and broader bandwidth services have displayed a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for high-priority Internet services" which accordance to with the assertion of network provider have the incentive to charge additional fees on certain services. However, they further explored the diffusion effect under government regulation. They found the discrimination from network provider might hurt the growth of new-coming internet service diffusion. They also suggested the government need to take in action to protect the new innovative service in early stage.

Thoughts

The research of technology researches is full of the regional differences. However, this is a good way to reference the experience of other countries. For the first paper, the authors imply an interesting research question: what is the role that government should play in the new mobile era? The technology is rapidly changing time by time. It is pretty hard for a government to propose a complete and flexible policy for the new industrial business. The idea of WIPI is clear, the Korean government intends to construct a universal mobile platform inside Korea. If the regulation succeeds, they can have a giant eco-system to promote their mobile application industry, as a game rule maker. The idea is similar to Japan mobile platform that adopted more localize special specifications. However, even larger market in Japan can not resist the platform competence from Apple ios and Google Android. That is why the government-led standard regulation is hard to compete with the other two industries-led platforms. There are more economic issues behind the scene, this could be another interesting research subject.

The dispute of network neutrality is another debate between network service providers and operator. There is a famous case from Netflix, a high latency sensitivity and broader bandwidth on-line video streaming services. The story is ended in Netflix pays the extra access fee to network operator Comcast. This action is a revenue worth decision for Netflix, but might be a huge barrier for some new internet service, as the paper [2] claims. The FCC is trying to forbid the discrimination charge from network operators, but this rule also arouses great controversy on the government internet control issue. The multiple stakeholder in this game makes this dispute continual. The simulation approach of this paper would be a way for us to examine the internet control policy.

Reference:

1. Hongbum Kim, Daeho Lee, Junseok Hwang. (2016). Measuring the Efficiency of Standardisation Policy Using Meta-Frontier Analysis: A Case of Mobile Platform Standardisation, International Journal of Mobile Communications.
2. Lee, Daeho, and Hongbum Kim. "The effects of network neutrality on the diffusion of new Internet application services." Telematics and Informatics 31.3 (2014): 386-396.