Search results

The purpose of this paper is to chart the growth of Millicom, a Luxembourg based but international operator of cable and mobile telecommunication networks.

A longitudinal case study approach is adopted covering the period 1990–2019 (inclusive). Data are drawn from multiple sources, including annual reports of Millicom and the trade press.

The analysis of this study highlights the changing geographical focus of Millicom. When founded, it was present in three regions – Africa, Asia and Latin America – but over time, it has concentrated its operations on the latter region. Secondly, Millicom has widened its operational remit to include more lines of business. This reflects the converged strategy that has been adopted in Latin America, where it is now active in cable and mobile telecommunication markets.

The paper illustrates the difficulties of research into privately owned companies and especially those active in the telecommunications industry in the early 1990s.

The analysis of this study highlights the challenges of researching companies active, as the telecommunications sector began to be liberalised. There is limited data in the public domain covering the early 1990s, not least because the Internet as understood today had not yet emerged.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first academic paper to analyse the internationalisation of Millicom.

This study aims to deepen the understanding of the challenges and implications entailed by deploying mobile clinics in conflict zones to reach populations affected by violence and cut off from health-care services.

This research combines an integrated literature review and an instrumental case study. The literature review comprises two targeted reviews to provide insights: one on conflict zones and one on mobile clinics. The case study describes the process and challenges faced throughout a mobile clinic deployment during and after the Iraq War. The data was gathered using mixed methods over a two-year period (2017–2018).

Armed conflicts directly impact the populations’ health and access to health care. Mobile clinic deployments are often used and recommended to provide health-care access to vulnerable populations cut off from health-care services. However, there is a dearth of peer-reviewed literature documenting decision support tools for mobile clinic deployments.

This study highlights the gaps in the literature and provides direction for future research to support the development of valuable insights and decision support tools for practitioners.

This paper aims to introduce an imitation learning framework for a wheeled mobile manipulator based on dynamical movement primitives (DMPs). A novel mobile manipulator with the capability to learn from demonstration is introduced. Then, this study explains the whole process for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn a demonstrated task and generalize to new situations. Two visual tracking controllers are designed for recording human demonstrations and monitoring robot operations. The study clarifies how human demonstrations can be learned and generalized to new situations by a wheel mobile manipulator.

The kinematic model of a mobile manipulator is analyzed. An RGB-D camera is applied to record the demonstration trajectories and observe robot operations. To avoid human demonstration behaviors going out of sight of the camera, a visual tracking controller is designed based on the kinematic model of the mobile manipulator. The demonstration trajectories are then represented by DMPs and learned by the mobile manipulator with corresponding models. Another tracking controller is designed based on the kinematic model of the mobile manipulator to monitor and modify the robot operations.

To verify the effectiveness of the imitation learning framework, several daily tasks are demonstrated and learned by the mobile manipulator. The results indicate that the presented approach shows good performance for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn tasks through human demonstrations. The only thing a robot-user needs to do is to provide demonstrations, which highly facilitates the application of mobile manipulators.

The research fulfills the need for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn tasks via demonstrations instead of manual planning. Similar approaches can be applied to mobile manipulators with different architecture.

This paper analyses operational differences between mobile franchising arrangements and fixed‐site franchises from an agency‐theoretic perspective. Almost 40 per cent of all franchised units in Australia operate as mobile or home‐based businesses, predominantly in service industries where products or services are provided directly to consumers. A two‐stage methodology is reported in this paper, incorporating quantitative and qualitative research methods. In stage one, data obtained from a survey of the population of Australian franchisors in 1998 are analysed to compare operational variables of mobile and fixed‐site franchise units. The second stage of the research employs in‐depth interviews with a sample of mobile franchisors and franchisees to further explore relevant issues. The results confirm the agency theory perspective that start‐up investment risk is lower in mobile units and mobile operations exhibit a higher level of repeat customers than fixed‐site franchises. No significant differences between the two arrangements are revealed in relation to the levels of franchisee monitoring, initial training or essential franchisee experience. This study indicates that agency theory contributes to our understanding of mobile franchising arrangements, yet also suggests the findings are not completely explained by agency theory. The results imply that both monitoring and alignment of incentives have complimentary effects and that both forms of contract are necessary in a franchisor's control system.

Although there has been some discussion of virtual operations, especially those of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), in the literature, there have been very few full‐scale case studies. This case study aims to examine the strategy of a very large virtual operator, Tele2.

The procedure of the study is to examine the meaning of the term “virtual operator”, to see how this can be applied over time to Tele2 and hence to determine whether Tele2's success has been dependent on using a virtual operator model.

It is established in the paper that Tele2's initial success was closely linked to its virtual operator status, but also that it has increasingly tended to behave like an infrastructure‐based operator as the competitive landscape has evolved.

There are strictly no other operators directly comparable with Tele2.

Case studies in the field of virtual operations are scarce and limited in their scope. This paper accordingly adds significantly to the literature.

Web services refer to a specific set of technologies used to implement a Service Oriented Architecture. Thanks to maturing Web‐services standards, and to new mobile devices and application solutions, progress is being made in presenting similar Web‐services offerings in both mobile and fixed networks. To bring that architecture and the solutions it will support to the world of mobility is indeed a significant issue in m‐business applications, because mobile Web services present various advantages: Reduction of the overall cost of development (by reusing existing system components), faster time to market introduction of products (provided by applications’ rapid development and deployment) and remarkable possibilities to emerge new applications with increased functionalities. In addition, the new and forthcoming mobile networks, with native IP connection and high speed transmission capability, allow the development of a variety of modern multimedia services. Multimedia Messaging Services (capable to mix the media types in order to enable more intuitive messaging operation), and Instant Messaging and Presence Services (dedicated for presence, instant messaging, and distribution and sharing of multimedia content in groups of users), provide suitable underlying capabilities to support location‐based and context‐sensitive multimedia services. In this paper we will present the current approaches regarding architectural, functional and security features that allow enterprises to enjoy the benefits of traditional Web services in the mobile multimedia domain.

Fraud is a global economic menace which threatens the survival of individuals, firms, industries and economies, and the mobile money service is no exception. This paper aims to explore the main causes of fraud in the mobile money services in Ghana and the measures to combat the menace by the key stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. The paper is motivated by recent reports of numerous fraudulent transactions on the mobile money platform, and the need to clamp down these nefarious transactions with effective and practical measures to sustain the service.

A thorough review of existing studies on fraud risk relating to mobile money services was done revealing a paucity of literature on the subject. Primary data were gathered using an interview guide to explore the magnitude of the problem based on the views of employees of mobile money operators, mobile money agents, banking supervisors from Bank of Ghana, employees of partnering banks, employees of National Communications Authority and mobile money subscribers.

The study revealed that fraud in mobile money services is caused by weak internal controls and systems, lack of sophisticated information technology tools to detect the menace, inadequate education and training and the poor remuneration of employees. These factors disrupt the growth, and the smooth-running of the services. To curb this menace, a detailed legal code and internal fraud policy should be developed and used by mobile money operators and partner banks. Adequate training for mobile money agents should be encouraged coupled with public awareness campaigns to educate stakeholders especially the mobile money subscribers on the tricks of the fraudsters.

With the chosen research methodology and limited sample size, the findings may not reflect the views of all the stakeholders connected to the mobile money services. Therefore, future studies on this subject are entreated to use research methods which embrace larger samples to get more details about this menace.

The study will assist in tackling the mobile money fraud to sustain the service in the foreseeable future.

This paper contributes to scanty literature on fraud relating to the mobile money services by drawing lessons from a middle-income country.

The purpose of this paper is to develop mathematical tools that are reliable and easily implementable in computer codes, which address the determination of the outriggers reaction of mobile cranes and the monitoring of the actual stability margin available during lift operations.

An algorithm that determines the load transmitted to the ground by a mobile crane with four outriggers has been developed. Static theory of rigid body is adopted for the development of the algorithm and the static indeterminancy, due to the presence of more than three outriggers, is eluded through the adoption of specific hypotheses. An analysis of crane stability is also performed, and a method to monitor the actual stability behavior during lift operations is suggested.

A case study is proposed to test the algorithm and outcomes show a good matching with the actual outriggers reaction measured during a test conduct in situ. Two indices are introduced as a measure of the stability margin.

The method developed accounts only for gravitational forces statically applied. Future works should be addressed to extend the model to the effect of wind and inertial forces.

This paper supplies a reliable tool to assess, in the design phase of a lifting operation, the compliance between bearing capacity of the ground and loads transmitted by outriggers. The method proposed for the analysis of the stability behavior is suitable for the development of an anti-upset device.

This study contributes to efforts to increase safety during lifting operations with mobile cranes. The method proposed is applicable to cranes with any geometry of the outriggers pattern and is extensible to a number of outriggers greater than four. Furthermore, the evaluation of the measure in real time of the stability margin, is not affected by the data entered by the crane’s operator with the consequence that human factor does not affect this measure.

The purpose of this paper is to show that fixed‐mobile convergence (FMC) has gathered much interest in the telecommunications industry lately. Integrated operators (who own both fixed and mobile networks), are keen to exploit FMC benefits in order to save costs and generate new revenues. This paper aims to analyze the effects of converged network and service environment on the business of existing telecommunication operators.

After an introduction to the regulatory, market, and technology related issues of convergence, the authors focus on analyzing the role of FMC technologies and services in their businesses of an integrated operator with existing fixed and mobile operations in a large Western European country.

Results reveal that an integrated operator can benefit from cost savings, customer retention and prevent revenue erosion by migrating to FMC.

This paper examines the effects of fixed‐mobile convergence to an integrated operator.