5G will change the mobile communication business ecosystem by introducing location specific high-quality wireless networks that can be operated by different stakeholders. This development will change the traditional business models and ecosystem roles, as well as open the market for new local mobile network operators. These operators, such as recently introduced micro operators, can target specific customers in different vertical sectors with closed 5G networks, serve mobile network operator’s (MNO) customers in high-demand areas on behalf of the MNO as a neutral host with open 5G networks, or mix different types of customers and offerings through various hybrid platform business models. This paper discusses business model options for local 5G micro operators, addressing also the different network deployment options and ecosystem constellations. Three generic 5G business models and respective value ecosystems are presented: Vertical business model and ecosystem, Horizontal business model and ecosystem, and Oblique business model and ecosystem. These business models are compared against the opportunities they address, drivers and boundaries of value they may generate, and sources and sustainability of advantages they represent. Finally, scalability, adaptability and sustainability of the business models and ecosystems are examined.

In the sixth generation of mobile communication networks (6G) era, in which the convergence of wireless and Internet technologies will drive the digital economy and automation across industries, the focus of innovation will shift from individual technology or products towards innovation within platforms and ecosystems. This paper provides a comprehensive categorised survey of the 6G business literature and the current state of mobile communication intellectual property value creation across the system architecture layers. The key emerging and enabling technologies of the 6G networks are positioned as applicable to areas of value creation and capture, and an outline of the proposed transformation of technology innovation by considering the 6G system architecture layers is provided. Unlike the existing 6G literature focusing on visions, use cases, KPI requirements, and KVI drivers, this study will extend the discussion to the value-creation-and-capture problem of technology innovators. The role of complementary assets, technology policy, standardisation, and intellectual property in 6G is analysed by profiting from innovation lenses. To gain the full potential and capture value from technology innovation in 6G, it is essential that regulators protect the intellectual property contributions to incentive R&D investments by the developers of open, collaborative enabling technologies. The paper further assesses the business model evolution from the 4G engineering platform to modular 5G and 6G, stemming from ecosystems and open value configurations. The results of the technology value analysis show the emerging 6G business to be an oblique hybrid of vertical and horizontal business models and characterise the future 6G networks as a general-purpose technology.

Radio spectrum is a scarce natural resource, whose efficient management calls for a thorough understanding of its value. A number of spectrum valuation approaches has emerged considering different elements, some with potentially high uncertainty as future profits, total cost of ownership and societal benefits. Spectrum valuation is important in regulators’ 5G spectrum decisions and will face a new situation, where location specific services and higher carrier frequencies give rise to local network operator models. This paper analyses the existing spectrum management and spectrum valuation approaches and identifies key elements to consider, when defining and assessing the value of spectrum especially in the context of future local 5G networks. The growing pressure to open the mobile market for location and vertical specific 5G networks promotes new sharing-based spectrum access models, to allow the emergence of local 5G operators. We characterize the identified spectrum valuation elements in the context of these new local 5G networks from the perspectives of the different stakeholder roles including regulators, mobile network operators (MNOs) and entrant local 5G operators. We further present a spectrum valuation case study of the recent 5G spectrum decisions in the 3.5 GHz band in different countries.

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and algorithms are increasingly being utilized in energy and renewable research to tackle various engineering problems. However, a majority of the AI studies in the energy domain have been focusing on solving specific technical issues. There is limited discussion on how AI can be utilized to enhance the energy system operations, particularly the electricity market, with a holistic view. The purpose of the study is to introduce the platform architectural logic that encompasses both technical and economic perspectives to the development of AI-enabled energy platforms for the future electricity market with massive and distributed renewables. A constructive and inductive approach for theory building is employed for the concept proposition of the AI energy platform by using the aggregated data from a European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 project and a Finnish national innovation project. Our results are presented as a systemic framework and high-level representation of the AI-enabled energy platform design with four integrative layers that could enable not only value provisioning but also value utilization for a distributed energy system and electricity market as the new knowledge and contribution to the extant research. Finally, the study discusses the potential use cases of the AI-enabled energy platform.

Climate change, the deterioration of the environment and exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity are major threats in operating environment which require new actions in industrialized and digitalized society. In parallel with the global deployment of 5th generation (5G) mobile communication networks, the telecommunication community has already started to envision 6G networks that target the year 2030. This paper discusses the unprecedented opportunities in the future 6G ecosystem specifically from the business perspective and applies a futures-oriented scenario planning method utilized in two strategy workshops in 2020. The paper portrays four scenario themes and a total of 16 alternative future scenarios for the business of 6G. Through the identification of key trends, their interactions, and related uncertainties, the scenario development process generates alternative futures where 6G business strategies are then developed and assessed through the business model perspective. Scenarios were created under four themes: user experience, business, sustainability, and geopolitics and they are discussed in terms of economical, societal, and environmental perspectives. The findings of the paper highlight the achievement of a preferred sustainable future that calls for attention to the privacy and security aspects considering business and regulatory needs: public/governmental, corporate, community, and human perspectives and aims of governance; ecosystem configuration related to users, decentralized business models, and platforms; user empowerment; and the role of service location-specificity. The findings indicate that it is vital to bring together relevant stakeholders to solve sustainability problems within the ecosystem and pay special attention to open ecosystem-focused value configuration and decentralized poly-nodal power configuration, while responding to the diversified demands of various users across the different verticals.

Spectrum sharing is becoming a necessity in future cellular networks due to the increasing traffic demand and challenges of getting exclusive spectrum. This article reviews the spectrum sharing framework that consists of regulatory, technology, and business domains. For future mobile network operators, sharing of spectrum with other operators or with other radiocommunication services - especially when using cognitive radio system technologies - is a disruptive change. Building on alternative spectrum sharing scenarios, this article discusses a set of Simple Rules for mobile network operators, both dominators and challengers, regarding spectrum sharing in future cognitive cellular networks. The Simple Rules provide a dynamic framework for both dominating and challenger mobile network operators for developing their sharing-based business models.