Quasi-subscribers in the Swedish Mobile Phone Market: The Phenomenon and Determinant Factors
Licentiate thesis, 2010

This thesis investigates the problematic inaccuracies of mobile phone density as a measure on access and use of mobile phones. The inaccuracies are presumably caused by the presence of quasi-subscribers - mobile phone users with multiple active SIM cards or subscriptions - that exaggerate the actual number of mobile phone users. From a macro perspective, this thesis finds that quasi-subscribers distort the accuracy of mobile density when used as a single proxy in representing the diffusion process of mobile phones. The cumulative mobile phone operator data, as the source of mobile density, inflate the actual number of adopters reflected in the diffusion curve and obscure the saturation level in the market. This is the result of the inability of the data to reflect the intra- and inter-operator multiple subscriptions. The investigation of the Swedish mobile phone market concludes that factors determining multiple subscriptions that lead to the presence of quasi-subscribers mostly come from subscriptions for business purpose and subscriptions for other family members. Moreover, the use of mobile data communication also has some impacts on the emergence of additional subscriptions. A different tendency however, is observed in different mobile phone markets, i.e. Thailand market. This indicates that the determinant factors of multiple subscriptions depend on the mobile phone market characteristics. As a contribution, this thesis proposes the use of a survey-based mobile phone density as a complementary index to operator-based mobile density. By doing so, the potential market as well as the saturation level in the market can be better projected. Further, the thesis also emphasizes organizations as unit of consumers in addition to individual consumers. This should be taken into account when investigating the consumers’ behavior in mobile telecommunication studies since the organization as unit of consumer may behave differently compare to individuals.

quasi-subscribers

diffusion process

multiple subscriptions

inter-operator multiple subscriptions

intra-operator multiple subscriptions

Mobile phone

the Vasa C, Vera Sanbergs Allé 8, Göteborg
Opponent: Prof. Dr. Teodosio Pérez Amaral, Dept. of Quantitative Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Author

Tsani Annafari

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics

Quasi-subscribers and Demand Saturation: An Analysis of the Swedish Mobile Phone Market

Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Telecommunication and Techno-Economics, 7-9 June 2010, Ghent, Belgium,; (2010)p. Art. no. 5557708-

Paper in proceeding

Estimating Mobile Phone Non-subscribers and Quasi-subscribers by Sampling

2009 Global Information Infrastructure Symposium, GIIS '09; Hammemet; Tunisia; 23 June 2009 through 26 June 2009,; (2009)p. Art. no. 5307104-

Paper in proceeding

An Empirical Analysis of the Factors Determining Multiple Subscriptions in the Swedish Mobile Phone Market

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Mobile Business, 13-15 June 2010, Athens, Greece,; (2010)p. 25 - 32

Paper in proceeding

Who needs more subscriptions? An empirical analysis of the Thailand mobile phone market

Proceedings of the 18th Bienial Conference of the International Telecommunication Society, 27-30 June 2010, Tokyo Japan,; (2010)

Other conference contribution

Counting active SIM cards or subscribers: Implications for research and policy studies

Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Telecommunication and Techno-Economics, Stockholm, June 15-16 2009,; (2009)

Paper in proceeding

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified

Licentiate thesis, report - Department of Technology of Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology: L2010:044

the Vasa C, Vera Sanbergs Allé 8, Göteborg

Opponent: Prof. Dr. Teodosio Pérez Amaral, Dept. of Quantitative Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

More information

Created

10/7/2017