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The telecommunications sector faces a major challenge of high customer churn. Despite this, there is still a lack of research that explores the switching intention for telecommunication services, particularly with bundle services that currently dominate the market. This study aims to provide insight into consumer behaviour regarding bundle telecommunication services by examining the factors that impact satisfaction and switching intention, both directly and indirectly. Eighteen hypotheses were defined based on the literature, and were tested through a quantitative study with 910 bundle service customers using structural equation modelling with Smart-PLS. The results show that internet and television services have the strongest indirect impact on switching intention, mediated by overall satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, the results indicate that switching costs and barriers do not significantly affect switching intention, and surprisingly, perceived contractual lock-in positively influences switching intention. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience with bundled telecommunications services and offers relevant insights for telecommunication managers to prevent customer loss to competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Telecommunications profoundly impacts all major aspects of our everyday life. As a consequence, student instruction typically includes a series of specialized courses, each addressing a distinct telecommunication area, separating wireless from fixed (optical) communications. This creates the problem of knowledge fragmentation, hindering the student's perception of the topic since, at the service level, the applications and services offered to the users seem "virtually" independent from the underlying infrastructure. In this paper, to address this problem, we designed, analyzed, and implemented a 6 h course module on the five generations of wireless and fixed networks, which was presented as an integral part of the undergraduate course "Broadband Communications", which was offered at the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece. The main targets of this module are the following. Firstly, it aims to familiarize students with the fixed generations taxonomy, defined by the ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) F5G. This taxonomy serves as a foundation for understanding the evolution of telecommunications technologies. Secondly, the module seeks to integrate the acquired knowledge of the students in their previous telecommunication-related courses. During their curriculum, this knowledge was divided into two separate parts: wireless and fixed (optical). By coupling these two areas, students can develop a deeper understanding of the field. Lastly, the module aims to explore cutting-edge technologies and advancements in the telecommunications industry. In this way, it prepares students to enter the professional world during the fifth-generation era. Additionally, it provides them with valuable insights into the ongoing research and development in the field of 6G. Overall, this module serves as a comprehensive platform for students to enhance their understanding of telecommunications, from the foundational concepts to the latest advancements. To evaluate the impact of this module, the students were asked to fill out a questionnaire that included seven questions upon module completion. This questionnaire was completed successfully by 32 students in the previous academic year and by 16 students in this academic year. Moreover, a 20-question multiple choice quiz was offered to the students, allowing us to probe more into the typical errors and misconceptions about the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology has emerged to turn hardware‐based network functions into software‐based virtual entities. In NFV‐enabled multicast services, the data flow should be passed through a series of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) before reaching destinations. In the problem of NFV‐enabled multicast service embedding, not only the VNFs must be deployed, but also the traffic forwarding topology must be constructed. As the exact solution of this problem suffers from high computational complexity, the heuristic or approximation approaches are used in practice. However, as a way to control the trade off between complexity and efficiency, using multistage solutions is offered in literature. In this article, some two‐stage approaches for embedding NFV‐enabled multicast services are introduced, and they are compared through analysis and simulation. Specifically, a new low‐complexity approach based on the Auxiliary VNF Graph (AVG) is proposed to determine the sub‐optimal locations for VNF placement and to construct the NFV‐based multicast routing tree. The comparative analysis shows that the proposal has acceptable performance while reducing the computational complexity significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seamless handoff is crucial for wireless body area network (WBAN) data's transmission, it may avoid the death resulted from sudden diseases, especially for the elder people who suffer from chronic diseases. Therefore, a vertical handoff algorithm that conforms to the characteristics of body area network is urgent. Different from the traditional service types in telecommunications, service types in wireless body area network have their own characteristics. How to reasonably divide these service types according to their requirement of the internet is very important. In addition, we need to study the rationality of different weighting and network selection algorithms for body area network users. In view of the lack of vertical handoff algorithms to meet the characteristics of wireless body area networks, this paper first analyzes the service types in body area network, and reasonably divides the service types in body area network into four types. For these four services types, we comprehensively and systematically analyze the weight determination and network selection algorithms suitable for them. In addition, in wireless body area network environment, there may be situations when multiple users need to transmit information at the same time. For these situations, we propose a broadcast mechanism to prevent network congestion caused by group switching. The simulation results show that the combination of using Analytic hierarchy process to determine the weight and using Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution as the network selection method is most suitable for vertical handoff in WBAN. The proposed broadcast mechanism can solve the network congestion problem caused by group handoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-standing sloppy economic growth model that has led to resource misallocation between regions and industries has caused China's economic development to enter a period of decelerated growth even though it has soared to the top class of the global economy. The issue of resource misallocation in China has been examined in previous studies, but less focus has been placed on whether resource misallocation has spatial spillover effect and the internet's involvement in it. To fill in the gaps in the literature, this study uses data from China's inter-provincial panel from 2010 to 2019 to measure four aspects of internet development: software and information technology services, key internet indicators, service capacity of the telecommunication industry, and the communication capacity of the telecommunication industry. This is done by using a multi-factor estimation method to approximate the actual real-world situation. With an appropriate selection of spatial matrix and threshold variables, a non-dynamic panel threshold model is built to empirically investigate the impact of internet development on resource mismatch. There are several significant findings in this study. First, internet development in China differs and correlates spatially. Second, as internet development advances, there is a significant negative impact on resource misallocation within the region itself and spillover effect to other regions. Third, there is regional variation in how resource misallocation is affected by internet development. Fourth, the connection between internet development and resource misallocation is threshold-dependent on the level of governmental support. To overcome the resource bottleneck and achieve coordinated development, we suggest that local governments should step up their support for the development of internet infrastructure, and underdeveloped regions should fully utilize the spillover effect of internet resources from developed regions. Jel Classification: R11; R15; C31 Plain language summary: Purpose: This paper investigates whether internet development can mitigate resource misallocation in China. Methods: Using provincial panel data from China and a multi-factor estimation method to construct a comprehensive index for internet development, we apply the gravity model to test the interregional interaction and the spatial Durbin model to examine the impact of internet development on resource misallocation. The threshold effect of government support is also being tested. Conclusions: First, internet development in China differs and correlates spatially. Second, as internet development advances, there is a significant negative impact on resource misallocation within the region itself and spillover effect to other regions. Third, there is regional variation in how resource misallocation is affected by internet development. Fourth, the connection between internet development and resource misallocation is threshold-dependent on the level of governmental support. Implications: To overcome the resource bottleneck and achieve coordinated development, we suggest that local governments should step up their support for the development of internet infrastructure, and underdeveloped regions should fully utilize the spillover effect of internet resources from developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature gives emphasis on the services provided by telecommunication capital which might be subject to internal and external-networking effects, as well as costly irreversible investment pointing out to a more important and complicated effect from these services on productivity and growth. The objective of this paper is to model these effects using a production function framework, along with a newly constructed dataset. A TFP growth approach is employed taking into consideration all the above characteristics, and a smooth coefficient semiparametric model is used. From the analysis, we observe that the services of telecommunication capital depend on the level of telecommunication capital stock. There is a significant positive, but heterogeneous, relationship between telecommunication capital and country productivity. Even though the effect is positive, it diminishes with its level but increases with networking, captured by number of users. Also, telecommunication capital growth and its own effect appear to be raising income in all countries used in our sample, even those who experienced output reduction. These characteristics should be taken into consideration when new telecommunication investment policy is considered within a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We contact the outside world through our five sense organs. This is the goal for business creating and maintaining attractive five senses for better servicescape service quality and sales. Perceived service quality is the level of consumers' cognition of service quality in a specific situation. That is an important basis for consumers to make purchase and re-patronage decisions. With satisfaction, loyalty and commitment from customers, customer engagement can support customer re-patronage. Experiential value is a sublimation of service value, which is form a deep memory or leave a good impression on a service. Re-patronage intention is usually interpreted as the leading factor of re-purchasing power. Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (CHT) is the largest integrated telecommunications service chain stores in Taiwan. This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of customer engagement and moderating role of experiential value into the research model to investigate the two moderated moderation effects for the CHT chain stores (n = 937). This study first found that mediating effect of customer engagement and moderating role of experiential value on the relationship between perceived service quality and five senses of servicescape can enhance re-patronage on CHT chain stores. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neglect of cultural values and dictates of varied domestic consumers in global campaigns of global companies has remained an issue of research concerns. Several researches have affirmed that the consistent and perhaps deliberate oversight in the adoption of cultural elements in global commercials had altered consumers' perception of brands and have subsequently affected their patronage. One particular study had blamed this on the distorted image of Nigeria by foreign media, which make it difficult for the multinationals to understand the true society and culture of Nigeria, its people, emerging social and consumption trends and technologies. Such lack of knowledge has further discourage prospective foreign investors in designing appropriate communication strategy for successfully marketing and selling of their products/services in Nigeria through their failure to adapt to social preferences, reveal cultural values and reflect the era people live in (glocal strategy). The study adopted mixed method design and covered three selected South Western States in Nigeria. A sample of 1,040 subscribers were proportionately distributed amongst the selected states while two each of the advertisements of the selected telecom providers - MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile were also content analyzed. The study showed that subscribers had positive attitudinal disposition towards adoption of cultural elements in telecoms television advertisements (M = 4.04); and that glocal advertising had a significant influence on effectiveness of telecommunications television advertisements (F(2, 777) =141.342, R2= 0.267, p<0.05). The study concluded that glocalized advertising enhance and improve subscribers' actual subscription to telecommunications services and recommended that telecoms companies should move to improve subscribers' perception of their glocal advertising strategies for improved subscription. The study concluded that glocalized advertising enhance and improve subscribers' actual subscription to telecommunications services and recommended that telecoms companies should move to improve subscribers' perception of their glocal advertising strategies for improved subscription. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most time‐sensitive and critical tasks for first responders in the aftermath of a disaster is to locate people for effective and successful rescue operations. The existing solutions for large‐scale location detection of citizens depend on expensive equipment that may not be readily available in many urban areas and also cannot cover a vast area quickly. To address this challenge, the present study proposes a novel location estimation method by creating a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) using citizens' mobile phones. The proposed solution can accurately estimate the location of mobile devices in a MANET based on their Received Signal Strength (RSS) and communicate the estimated location coordinates to first responders without any dependencies on telecommunication infrastructures. This system will help first responders locate and map mobile devices in the affected area in a matter of seconds to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of postdisaster rescue operations. The envisioned solution offers unique capabilities that differentiate it from previously existing methods. The proposed method directly estimates device locations using their basic cellular signal strength without any dependency on GPS and relies only on basic cellphone signals. Therefore, nonsmartphones can also join and function in the envisioned MANET system. It also does not impose any computational operations or requirements for installing an app on citizens' phones. The performance of the proposed system was empirically evaluated using a simulation analysis. The results indicated that the method could efficiently and accurately discover more than 93% of mobile devices and estimate their locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government is asking Australians for their views on the existing telecommunications universal service obligation. Fifty years ago, that obligation was on Telecom (now Telstra) to provide payphones and a voice service that would best meet the social, industrial and commercial needs of all Australians who reasonably require those services, so far as it is reasonably practicable to do so. The obligation is still the same: the provision of payphones and voice telephony. If the universal service obligation is to have any continuing relevance in the Australian communications framework, however, it must reflect the social, industrial and commercial needs of Australians in 2024 and beyond. Research shows that Australians are using broadband services for a wide range of services in their lives: access to government services, health, finances, education, entertainment, and social and family connections. And for the large majority of Australians, that communication is by mobile telephony. A new definition of the service for all Australians must be upgraded to reflect how Australians now communicate. And it must be continually reviewed and upgraded as necessary to meet the changing communications needs of all Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunication is one of the essential necessities of everyday life. In India, the telecommunications sector has seen a significant increase in the day-to-day. Telecommunications service companies hold data about their customers, and crisp graphs are used to depict these records. Examining and selecting the best mobile phone service providers (MPSPs) based on operational restrictions will help determine the best MPSPs. The analysis of MPSPs may be regarded as a difficult decisionmaking issue. The aim of this article is to provide an outline to examine the performance of MPSPs and the selection of the best MPSP for customers in India. The statistical data were obtained from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India between April 2019 and March 2021. A novel approach for cosine similarity measures (CSM) among hesitancy fuzzy graphs (HFG) and estimating the certified repute scores of the experts by determining the ambiguous information of hesitancy fuzzy preference relations (HFPRs) and the regular cosine similarity grades from one separable HFPR to some others. And consider "objective" and "subjective" information given by experts. According to CSMs, we define the Laplacian energy of an HFG. This research provides a solution to a decision-making problem by applying the newly developed cosine similarity measure and the Laplacian energy of hesitancy fuzzy graphs. The ranking order of all alternatives and the best one is determined by calculating the cosine similarity between each alternative and the ideal alternative. Finally, an illustrated example is provided to show the applicability of the proposed approach to the decisionmaking problem as well as its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Law, State & Telecommunications Review / Revista de Direito, Estado e Telecomunicações is the property of Grupo de Estudos em Direito das Telecomunicacoes (GETEL) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Law, State & Telecommunications Review / Revista de Direito, Estado e Telecomunicações is the property of Grupo de Estudos em Direito das Telecomunicacoes (GETEL) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growth in the telecommunications market has generated different forms of competition; therefore, regulatory entities conduct a continuous analysis of this to identify the consequences for the development of the sector and its users. This paper presents the statistical and competition or concentration analysis for the mobile internet market in Colombia using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI), which is then projected for one year using the forecast of the number of accesses, incomes, and traffic on operators with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. The operator data used for statistical analysis and training of the LSTM network corresponds to the last eleven years. Through this evaluation, low competition or high concentration in this market is evident and predicted. In addition, recommendations are made to reduce concentration based on recent policies developed by the regulatory entity.

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Boletín Económico de ICE is the property of S.G.E.E.I.P.C., Secretaria de Estado de Comercio, Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a form of digital systems and a way of encoding digital data across multiple frequency components that is used in telecommunication services. Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) inaccuracy is a serious disadvantage of OFDM. In this research, Fuzzy based Slime Mould optimization for CFO (FSM-CFO) has been proposed. The proposed FSM-CFO not only estimates the CFO with increased precision, but also allocates resources effectively, achieving maximum utilization of dynamic resources. Initially, Slime Mould Algorithm is utilized to extract the precise CFO. Additionally, the base station (BS) manages the Resource Units (RU), which could be used to distribute resources in such a manner that the user-requests are met. The resources are assigned using fuzzy rules, with the type of resource that is most appropriate for the nodes that have requested the resources being chosen. To assign resources to a certain job, fuzzy rules are devised. Once the residence time for the duration has passed, the highest-priority tasks receive the specific resources. Finally, experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated in terms of Resource utilization, failure rate, life span, and energy consumption. According to the simulated results, the suggested configuration can perform better compared to the existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are several studies on knowledge hiding (KH) and organisational processes, there is dearth of empirical literature on KH and organisational outcomes. Using the theories of the quest for psychological ownership of knowledge (QPOK), reactance, displaced aggression and social exchange, this study investigated the predictors of KH and their implications for organisational success (OS). The specific objectives were to determine the extent to which QPOK, abusive supervision (ABS), organisational injustice (OINJ), workplace incivility (WPINCV), workplace exclusion (WPE) and unethical leadership (UNEL), influence KH and the influence of KH on OS. The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey of 296 online respondents selected through systematic sampling from multinational and national telecommunications service providers in Nigeria. Structural equation model served as the inferential statistics. The results showed that QPOK, OINJ, WPINCV, WPE are significant predictors of KH. Using these constructs as the measures of KH and using structural equation modelling technique, the QPOK, OINJ and WPE are significant predictors of os, thus indicating that KH has significant influence on organisational success. This study departs from previous studies by showing that QPOK has a positive relationship with KH and OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the explosive pace of mobile over-the-top (OTT) video content streaming services, mobile network traffic has seen unprecedented growth in recent years. However, the limitation of antenna performance, the burden of investment cost, and restricted resources hinder improving the current mobile networks' functionality. Accordingly, wireless device-to-device (D2D) caching networks came to the fore as one of the competitive alternatives for alleviating the overloads of mobile network traffic. Wireless D2D caching networks can be a desirable alternative for OTT service providers and telecommunication operators, but the problem is user resistance. User participation is imperative to deliver wireless D2D caching network functionality successfully. Thus, to gain a deeper understanding of user resistance toward wireless D2D caching networks and their underlying sources, this study introduces two perceived cost factors contributing to this resistance and one perceived benefit that mitigates such resistance. Based on an online survey, this study found new theoretical links among perceived costs and benefits, resistance, and participation intention. The findings reveal that user resistance is predicted by perceived costs, encompassing resource sacrifices and privacy concerns, whereas perceived benefits—specifically, perceived usefulness—did not significantly influence resistance. This implies that telecommunication operators should prioritize market requirements over technological advantages, emphasizing the potential for successful commercialization of wireless D2D caching networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India’s telecommunication services have become one of the fastest growing businesses in the world (Forbes.com, 2011). As per TRAI (2021) data, India’s telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phones) with 1179.49 million subscribers as on 31 January 2021. India has the world’s second-largest Internet user-base with 747.41 million broadband internet subscribers (TRAI, 2020). Telecom sectors play a vital role in providing support for social and economic growth while transforming multiple sectors such as IT, insurance, education, health, etc. This study focusses on human resource management practices in the public and private telecom company. The main aim of this research is to compare the existing HRM practices in BSNL and Airtel. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, three hypotheses were developed and tested using independent t-test. A pre-structured questionnaire was designed to collect data of employees’ views on HRM practices in public and private companies. A total of 84 respondents (BSNL=62, Airtel=22) has been considered using convenient sampling method. The findings of the study reveals that human resource practices in private telecom company are well planned, adequate and effective for employees compared to the public sector company. The findings can be used by telecommunication sectors to improve the welfare and management of employees in their company. This study shows the importance of HRM in the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to explore the use of the conceptual metaphor PRODUCTS ARE WARRIORS in Vietnamese advertisements and analyze its nature from the national cultural and historical approach. Three research methods have been used to accomplish these aims, specifically discourse analysis, statistical analysis and categorization on the basis of a linguistic corpus consisting of 200 Vietnamese advertisements collected from different means of media, including newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, billboards, leaflet for 12 categories of products such as food and drinks, electronics and home appliances, mobile phones, cosmetics, real estate and resorts, telecommunications services, etc. The research findings demonstrate that the metaphor PRODUCTS ARE WARRIORS is used extensively in Vietnamese advertisements; its mappings are constructed on the two domains of PRODUCTS and WARRIORS. Not all the aspects of the source domain are mapped but only the most distinctive ones, including missions of warriors, strengths and powers of warriors, weapons used in the fight, tactics used in the battle, victory gained by warriors and battlefields. The six corresponding aspects of the target domain are functions, impacts on users, nature, operations, superior values of products and areas that products function on. The study also provides some general analysis of this metaphor based on the typical historical and cultural characteristics of Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixth-generation (6G) announcements promise the best performance not only for latency but also for the number of connected objects. These characteristics particularly suit intelligent transport system (ITS) applications involving a large number of moving vehicles with stringent latency constraints. Moreover, in the 6G era, these applications will often operate while relying on direct cooperation and exchanges between vehicles, in addition to centralized services through a telecommunication infrastructure. Therefore, addressing collaborative intelligence for ad hoc routing protocols that ensure efficient management of multihop vehicle-to-vehicle communications is mandatory. Among the numerous organization models proposed in the literature, the chain–branch–leaf (CBL), a virtual backbone-like model, has demonstrated best performance regarding latency against the state-of-the-art approaches. However, its structure, which lacks redundancy, may lead to higher data loss in the case of the failure of one of the relaying branch nodes. This study investigated how the multipoint relay (MPR) technique—which is intrinsically redundant—used in the optimized link state routing (OLSR) protocol can be efficiently adapted to the road traffic context, especially by restricting MPR selection to a single traffic flow direction (TFD-OLSR). The simulation results confirmed that CBL-OLSR obtains the least end-to-end delay for various types of application traffic due to its efficient reduction in the number of relays and the amount of routing traffic. However, despite higher routing traffic, TFD-OLSR improves the delivery rate, especially for more than two-hop communications, thus demonstrating the benefits of its redundancy property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of new telecommunication services requires the implementation of advanced technologies and the next generations of networks. Currently, the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a widely used standard. On the other hand, more and more mobile network operators (MNOs) are implementing the fifth-generation (5G) New Radio standard in their networks. It allows for increasing throughput, spectral, and energy efficiency and maximizing coverage, while reducing latency. The effectiveness of the introduced changes is measured by assessing the quality of service (QoS) in mobile networks. The paper presents the result evaluation of the QoS measurement campaign carried out using the drive test method in an urban area for four MNOs. We analyze the data transmission scenario, which is the basis of most modern telecommunications services. The result comparison provides an assessment of the 5G service implementation advancement by MNOs. In this analysis, we consider many QoS metrics (e.g., session time, throughput, and round-trip time) and parameters defining the radio signal quality (i.e., reference signal received power, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio). Our work also included searching for relationships between these parameters, using a correlation analysis. It allows for the selection of uncorrelated parameters to assess the quality of network, i.e., MNO evaluation, in terms of the provided QoS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rapidly and dynamically developing information society, the needs, desires, attitudes, and expectations of users are changing. This offers a continuous improvement of the services offered in the telecommunications market. The level of user satisfaction with telecommunication services is key to factoring all users into this process. The present development aims to investigate the level of satisfaction of different groups of users with the telecommunications services provided on the market. It depends on some factors. Tracking trends in this area is important for practice. It will contribute both to increasing the efficiency, the quality of offering and consumption of services, and to increasing the trust of users. This gives rise to the need to describe and demonstrate good practices in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Telehealth care expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, although previous studies show racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities in its usage. Racial disparities are known to be mitigated in the Military Health System (MHS), whose 9.6 million beneficiaries are universally insured and nationally representative. This study investigated whether known disparities in telehealth usage were mitigated in the MHS. Methods:This study performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of TRICARE telehealth claims data from January 2020 to December 2021. Beneficiaries aged 0 to 64 years were identified with Common Procedural Terminology code modifiers 95, GT, and GQ, which indicated procedures that were delivered through either synchronous or asynchronous telecommunication services. Visits were defined as one encounter per patient per day. Analyses included descriptive statistics of patient demographics, number of telehealth visits, and differences between military-provided and private sector care (PSC). Military rank was used as a proxy for socioeconomic status (SES), generally combining income, education, and occupation type. Results:A total of 917,922 beneficiaries received telehealth visits during the study period: 25% in direct care, 80% in PSC, and 4% in both care settings. The majority of visits were received by females (57%) and associated with a Senior Enlisted rank (66%). The visits by racial category were proportional to the percentage of each category in the population. The lowest number of visits was for those older than 60 years, potentially receiving Medicare instead, and those associated with Junior Enlisted rank, a potential disparity that may also reflect access to leave or smaller family size. Conclusions and Relevance:Within the MHS, telehealth visits were equitable by race, in line with previous findings, but not by gender, SES, or age. Findings by gender are reflected in the greater U.S. population. Further research is needed to assess and address potential disparities associated with Junior Enlisted rank as proxy for low SES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunications network operators around the world are often characterized as natural monopolists. Only one or few telecommunications firms control nationwide networks through which all other ancillary service providers reach their customers. Many jurisdictions, including the United States, European Union, and Korea, seek to prevent such powerful market players from abusing their dominance by regulating their business conduct under competition law. This Note focuses on the regulation of "margin squeeze," whereby a dominant firm leverages its market power in one market with the intent to monopolize a separate but related market. The United States does not currently impose a standalone antitrust liability based on margin squeeze, whereas the European Union has established that margin squeeze constitutes a standalone abuse. In 2021, the Korean Supreme Court adopted a similar approach to the European Union. A comparative analysis reveals that the Korean Supreme Court has judicially created the notion of margin squeeze based on a notable statutory ambiguity. Korean competition law authorities must resolve this ambiguity through legislative reform based on thoughtful policy choices that adequately reflect the purpose of competition law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is a large oil-consuming country, and sharp fluctuations in oil prices are bound to be detrimental to the stable growth of its economy. Therefore, accurately grasping the impact of the oil market on China's sectors is the key to ensuring its healthy economic development. The article aims to explore the extreme risk transfer link of the oil and China's sectors system, focusing on uncovering the risk spillover mechanism of the oil and providing early warning on it. We apply the TENET method to discuss risk propagation relationships within the oil and sectors system at three levels. The TVP-VAR model is brought in to recognize the factors affecting risk spillover in the oil market from the network correlation perspective. Finally, early warning of oil risk spillover is provided by incorporating the influencing factors into a machine learning model. The outcomes indicate that the risk connectivity of the oil and China's sectors system is highly correlated with extreme events. There are variations in the spillover effects of oil market risk on different sectors, with Telecommunication Services, Utilities, Financials and Major Consumer sectors being the main bearers of the oil risk shocks. Overall, oil risk spillovers are mainly driven by economic policy and geopolitics, but oil price uncertainty is found to have a persistent impact on oil market risk spillovers in the dynamic analysis. Random forest model can provide effective early warning of oil risk spillovers. In addition, the significance analysis shows that oil price uncertainty and inflation are important factors affecting oil risk spillovers and are nonlinearly correlated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to analyse the non-financial disclosures concerning the application of good practices in the area of internal systems and functions in WSE-listed companies and to compare the level of implementation of these practices between companies operating in different sectors. To achieve the assumed goal, research questions were asked: 1) Do WSE-listed companies provide information on the implementation of good practices for internal systems and functions? 2) What is the difference in the level of application of good internal audit practices between WSE-listed companies operating in different sectors? Design/methodology/approach: The research methods used are based on the study of the literature on the subject and the analysis of non-financial reports of WSE-listed companies (including corporate governance statements, management reports and reports submitted to the WSE). Findings: Analysed data on the application of BPLC 2021 principles by companies included in the ten economic sectors, i.e.: groceries, banks, automotive, media, energy, mining, chemistry, building fuel and gas telecommunications allowed to confirm that the surveyed companies report non-financial information on the application of the BPLC 2021, and including solutions for internal systems and functions. That the level of application of the rules differs. The highest level of application of the principles concerning internal systems and functions was shown by banks, while the lowest level was found in the automotive group. The highest not comply rate was shown for principle 3.6 on the positioning of internal audit in the company's structure. In the case of banks, the banking law imposes obligations on these institutions to implement appropriate solutions for internal systems and functions. Accordingly, the principles set out in the BPLC 2021 are also implemented. Originality/value: The implementation of corporate governance is aimed at securing the interests of the owner and the capital invested in the company, as well as the interests of other stakeholders. A very important additional non-financial information from the point of view of corporate governance is information regarding the area of internal control, the reporting of which in non-financial statements is still insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first objective was to estimate the digital gender gap in the department of Puno in the year 2021. For this, the probit regression model with sample selection called Heckprobit was applied using data from the Residential Survey of Telecommunications Services for the year 2021 (Erestel, 2021) of the Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Peru). The second objective was to identify the determinants of the frequency of mobile Internet use in women dedicated to textile crafts in the department of Puno, for which the censored Poisson regression model was applied with primary data collected through a questionnaire, the simple random sample technique was used. The results show the existence of the digital gender gap, men are more likely to access mobile Internet by 5.4 percentage points compared to women. On the other hand, the results corroborate that the frequency of mobile Internet use was even lower for older artisan women (p<0.01), with fewer years of education (p<0.10), if they reside in a rural area (p<0.01) and if they have limited mobile Internet service (p<0.05), the digital gender gap persists and it is imperative that the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations and the municipalities undertake actions to promoting the closing of the gender gap, within the framework of the sustainable development goals of the millennium in the world agenda 2030 of the United Nations (UN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial argues from content in this issue that telecommunications regulation has not kept pace with convergence of telecommunications and content providers. It suggests that the loose co-ordination between regulations and regulators for telecommunications services and digital platforms no longer makes technological sense within the converged architectures of 5G and 6G. In addition, all the published papers, not just those relating to regulation, are briefly described. This issue also includes an obituary for John Burke, an influential member of this Journal's Editorial Advisory Board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A miniaturized frequency‐selective surface (FSS) for radio frequency (RF) filtering applications is reported in this paper. The proposed FSS is designed to operate with band stop property at 1.57 GHz. The FSS element is developed using highly convoluted lines running on either side of the substrate interconnected using via lines. This specific arrangement increases the electrical length of the resonator without increasing the physical size. Furthermore, the stability towards polarization variation and independence to different angles of incidence are other major concerns in the design of FSS. The FSS unit cell has rotational symmetry thereby providing polarization‐independent operation. The angular independence is tested for various incidence angles, and the results are presented. The performance of the FSS is validated in real time, and the results are presented. The maximum realized transmission loss is 27 dB at 1.57 GHz, and the attenuation bandwidth with reference 10 dB shielding level is estimated to be 400 MHz centered around 1.57 GHz. The convolution technique along with shorting vias has offered this extreme miniaturization ranging from 7% to 95.7% with reference to most of the FSS reported for L‐band services such as radio, telecommunications, military, and aircraft surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported in this article aimed to deepen the understanding of the mechanisms driving the adoption and usage of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in rural Malawian households, particularly among communities that have not received prior solar energy interventions. It used a qualitative approach to investigate the experiences of solar PV system adopters in Ntchisi, Malawi. The study included fourteen participants, and data were collected through observations and interviews, which were then analysed using thematic analysis procedures. The study's findings indicate that many individuals in rural areas have installed solar PV systems that lack adequate training, resulting in potentially hazardous installations. The installation of solar PV systems in villages is motivated by several factors, including the lack of electricity, convenience, benefits, and personal interest in learning more about solar systems. The participants have highlighted numerous benefits of using solar energy, such as reduced costs, increased convenience, improved productivity, reliable energy access, and telecommunication services. However, solar PV systems are primarily limited to household lighting, phone charging, and powering televisions and radios; however, not for cooking purposes. The findings imply that governments in sub-Saharan Africa should provide training and guidance on the safe and effective use of solar PV systems, invest more in solar PV infrastructure to enable larger solar systems for cooking, refrigeration, and irrigation, and promote the use of solar energy through education and awareness campaigns to encourage greater adoption of solar energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to develop and test a framework of data protection dimensions that enhance customer satisfaction in the Postal and Telecommunications sector. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the relationships between data protection dimensions (awareness and knowledge of the rights of data subjects, data protection trust and confidence of data subjects, and cyber and data protection complaints redress) and consumer satisfaction. There has been limited study on the connection between data protection and customer satisfaction in the context of the postal and telecommunications sector. The current consumer satisfaction framework in the postal and telecommunications sector in Zimbabwe does not consider data protection issues. The study adopted a quantitative approach to establish the relationships between variables. A cross-section survey of 1,143 respondents that were randomly selected was conducted across all ten provinces in Zimbabwe. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between consumer trust and confidence and consumer satisfaction with postal and telecommunication services. The study is crucial in informing the development of a new framework for measuring consumer satisfaction in the postal and telecommunications sector. The framework will help establish data protection metrics that have a significant influence on consumer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]