The roll-out of new mobile technologies as a timing game

Paolo Zappalà (1, 2) , Amal Benhamiche , Matthieu Chardy , Francesco De-Pellegrini , Rosa Figueiredo

1 Orange Labs [Meylan]
2 LIA - Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon

When adopting a novel mobile technology, a mobile network operator faces the dilemma of determining which is the best time to install the next generation equipment onto the existing infrastructure. In a strategic context, the best possible time for deployment is the best response to competitors' actions, subject to normative and material constraints and to the customer's adoption curve. We formulate in this paper a finite timing game in discrete-time which captures the main features of the problem for a two players formulation. Under mild assumptions on the time scale at which operators decide on the installation, we provide a methodology to obtain a subgame-perfect equilibrium for the resulting extensive form game. Our numerical results compare the utility of each player with the social optimum and describe the trade off between fixed costs and installation strategies.

Mots clés: mobile technology adoption; timing games; two-player extensive form games

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]

Paolo Zappalà, Amal Benhamiche, Matthieu Chardy, Francesco De-Pellegrini, Rosa Figueiredo. The roll-out of new mobile technologies as a timing game. 2021. ⟨hal-03384066⟩