Regulating the Mobile Telecommunications Industry: The Case of Australia Communications of the IBIMA Volume 5, 2008 24 Regulating the Mobile Telecommunications Industry: The Case of Australia Indrit Troshani The University of Adelaide Business School Adelaide Australia indrit.troshani@adelaide.edu.au Sally Rao Hill The University of Adelaide Business School Adelaide Australia sally.raohill@adelaide.edu.au Abstract The adoption of mobile services has achieved a spectacular growth in many countries around the world. However, regulators in these countries are finding that existing regulatory frameworks are not suitable for dealing with these services. This paper employs qualitative evidence to investigate how regulation can affect mobile services in the Australian mobile telecommunications industry and draws from it to propose an innovative regulatory framework. The framework is comprised of five major components: consumer and intellectual property protection, market and resources access, and environmental protection. These components encompass the interests of the stakeholders operating in mobile industry and given its dynamic and complex nature, co-regulation is an effective approach that can be used to minimize costs and enhance compliance. 1. Introduction A mobile service can be defined as an activity or series of intangible activities that occur when mobile consumers interact with systems or service provider employees with the support of a mobile telecommunications network [1, 2]. Examples of mobile services include mobile e-mail, SMS and MMS services, content downloads, mobile ticket reservations, mobile stock trading, and mobile TV [3]. Mobile services are complex and require the integration of diverse technological and organizational resources which typically cannot be found within a single organization. Consequently, the knowledge necessary for developing and deploying these services may involve several heterogeneous stakeholders who are often embedded in various technological, economic, and social settings. In order to succeed, these stakeholders must interact with each other while complying with legal and societal requirements that balance their diverging interests, motivations, and needs [4]. These requirements constitute a regulatory regime which, by definition, can operate at either industrial, national or international levels and can influence, direct, limit or prohibit any activity undertaken by stakeholders operating in the mobile industry [5]. Typically, regulatory regimes are set by regulatory and legislative authorities including government agencies, industry and consumer associations. Regulatory regimes around the globe are ill equipped for dealing with technologies such as mobile services because the “existing policy frameworks have been inherited from specific national, regional, and international histories of regulating broadcasting, telecommunications, and media, as distinct entities, and are not well-placed to deal with contemporary communications technologies that blur the boundaries among these.” (Goggin & Spurgeon, 2005, p. 181). Although limited studies about regulatory regimes are available in the literature they lack comprehensiveness [6-10]. In fact, many scholars argue that research in this area is lacking [11-14]. Further, practitioners believe that a healthy regulatory environment is essential for the growth of these industries [15-18]. With this study, we attempt to address these concerns and the lack of vigorous research into regulatory frameworks. Our objective is to leverage on extant literature and use qualitative evidence collected to explore how regulation can affect the mobile industry. The study culminates with regulatory framework for the mobile services industry. The Australian mobile services industry was used as a setting for investigating this objective. This study is important for several reasons. First, it can be invaluable to stakeholders in the mobile industry in helping them improve their understanding of the environmental factors that enhance or constrain their positions in their value chain, and industry. A deeper understanding of such factors can help stakeholders in many ways in i) achieving a valuable competitive advantage. Stakeholders that exhibit compliance with regulatory rules that benefit users of mobile services may achieve their trust more effectively than those who do not [12]; ii) providing stakeholders the opportunity to “achieve knowledge on legal issues, to stay away from legal areas in which processes are unclear, and to avoid related risks.” (Kijl, 2005, pp.