Strategic Options for Managing Technology Evolution in Wireless Industry

The wireless industry is challenged by the rapid development of wireless network architecture and technologies due to the increasing demand for high-quality multimedia services. This demand has led wireless service providers to struggle with a network migration problem, i.e., how to best deliver high-quality multimedia services. Competitive pressures are forcing wireless service providers to streamline their business and technology strategies to offer more and better services to their customers. Wireless operators around the world are currently in the process of modifying their networks to offer subscribers 3G services. This study assesses the wireless technology migration path options towards the third generation (3G) wireless data service network architecture design. Based on the real options theory, we develop a theory to support the decisions of wireless network service providers: to migrate or not, if so, which network migration path to take and what to do once they get there.