With the boom in bit-intensive and live streaming content in the broadband Internet ecosystem, the phenomenon of increasing and persisting congestion on the Internet is no longer a mere engineering possibility, but a grave and imminent reality in developed nations. To deal with this problem,...

The purpose of the analysis is to clarify the effect of personal information on switching costs in the internet shopping market. In order to shop on internet shopping sites, users must register with the site and provide information. In addition, many internet shopping sites provide the user's...

After decades of liberalization of the telecommunications industry around the world and technological convergence that allows for increasing competition, sector-specific regulation of telecommunications has been on the decline. As a result, the telecommunications industry stands in the middle of...

This paper explores the factors that influence the users’ decision to migrate from narrowband to broadband services. Data used were obtained from web questionnaire surveys in Japan and the annual Internet User Profile Survey of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC)...

Although railway services have been suffering financially due to modal shifts and aging populations, they have been, and will continue to be, an essential component of nations' basic social infrastructures. Since railway firms generate positive externalities, and are required to operate in...

Telecommuting, a dispersed style of commuting enabled by developments in info-communication technology, is becoming increasingly popular among Japanese white-collar employees. According to our estimates, 9-14 million employees will telecommute by 2010, which will result in a 6.9-10.9% reduction...

The rapid development of information and communication technology has facilitated Internet use considerably, particularly with regard to the speed of packet transfer at access segments. With the boom in bit-intensive and live-streaming content in the broadband Internet ecosystem, the phenomenon...