E-Commerce and Neutral Networks - Case Study Example

Two Cases Name Institution Date Table of Contents Case 1: M-Commerce: the past, present, and Future 3 Question 1 3 Question 2 4 Question 3 4 Question 4 5 Question 5 6 Case Study 2: Net Neutrality: Neutral Networks Work 7 Question 1 7 Question 2 8 Question 3 9 Question 4 10 Question 5 10 References 11 Albanesius, (2011). FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Take Effect Nov. 20. Accessed on March 14, 11 2013 from: 11 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393442,00.asp. 11 Gorman, J. (2012). Network Neutrality: Benefits and Disadvantages. Student Deliverable, IT 12 Section. Australia. 12 Kappel et al, (2006). Web Engineering: The Discipline of Systematic Development of Web 12 Applications. John Wiley & Sons. Germany. 12 Tarasewich et al (2002). ‘Issues in Mobile e-Commerce.’ Communications of the Association for 13 Information Systems. Volume 8: 41-64. 13 Case 1: M-Commerce: the past, present, and Future Question 1 The “8-second rule” of the Internet and why it is important to m-commerce technology The 8-second rule is a rule that is used to measure the tolerance of people reading a screen that is full of information or their patience in waiting for a screen to load. Kappel et al (2006) stated that users generally tend to make themselves busy with something else after waiting for between 8 – 10 seconds. Under this concept, users do not like waiting for long. They would like to wait for about 3 seconds and could extend their patience to up to 8 seconds. Beyond this time, their train of thought gets disturbed and they get unpleasant feelings about the site. Usually, the user will open another web page or they will refresh the existing page. It is for this reason that companies are advised to limit their pages in terms of the number of images and other media elements of high volume. They should design them to be slim so that users can access them fast enough. In the current m-commerce world, speed is a critical component. This is because users will want to use their mobiles for commercial transactions because they want to be fast at what they are dong. A buyer will purchase something using the mobile because of the expectation that it will be faster than the conventional methods of commerce. Therefore, the 8-second rule is significant in commerce because it gives the threshold that the user will like to wait while using the m-commerce. This gives the designers a design criterion. Question 2 Why it might be useful for m-commerce providers to have records of their users’ purchase histories It is useful for providers to have the records of their customers in the aspects of mobile payment and shopping through mobile phones. For mobile payment, the records provide information on the store types and situations where services have been utilized the most. For instance, provides will get information that their clients used mobile payment in getting a metro ticket and few of the clients used mobile payment to pay for their lunch at a restaurant that has been fitted with the right reader device. By obtaining such information, the provider will understand that it is better to have new devices installed in the metro station that does not have the device and not to distribute devices to other restaurants. For the case of shopping using mobiles, information on the tastes of the clients is obtained and this helps the providers in promoting offers that are personalized to the clients with respect to the interests of the clients. This makes the users to fully utilize the service since they get what they want conveniently (Tarasewich et al, 2002). Question 3 The biggest concern most cell phone users have about using m-commerce services other concerns One of the biggest concerns that mobile phone users have is the issue of security. The users are concerned about the security of their information in the moment that this information is unencrypted. During this moment, their information is exposed and it is therefore their concern as to whether the mobile devices will protect their information from attacks from malware and from other threats. In addition, users are concerned about the privacy of the information that they share with their providers in the devices. Information about the location of the users is usually made available t providers. The main concern is for the information to remain privatized by the providers. Tarasewich et al (2002) stated that some of the applications used in devices expose user information since they have to provide information on their location and other details. Users are therefore concerned about the privacy of such information since there could be other interests from attackers and this poses a threat to the users. GSM commerce is responsible for the security of mobile stations when linking to a network. Under this, the confidentiality of information provided by users is enabled. Users would like to have devices that will protect their information from external intrusion and from any malicious attacks. In addition, they like to have devices that are no easy to corrupt. The devices should provide authentication that will allow the protection of their information. Another concern that users have is the fear of losing their devices. Such devices would disappear with valuable information that would be costly if lost. In other cases, the users use the profiles in their devices to store information on their credit cards and this calls for the use of digital certificates. The concern is to have sufficient protection of their information. Question 4 Why technology advances such as pseudo-wires and MPLS technology are important to increasing backhaul capacity Backhaul acts as a link between the Radio Access Network and the backbone network of the mobile. It is therefore able to carry move mobile data from the user’s end to the internet or any other similar network. This has called for an increase in the bandwidth of the backhaul because of the propagation of data services based on 3G and the emergence of air interface enhancements with high speed like the HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). There is also the rising need to reduce the costs of operation so as to make up for the falling average revenue per user. These situations create a bottleneck in the backhaul networks since they seem to be providing less capacity that cannot support bandwidths that are high (Broadband Forum, 2010). Use of the MLPS and pseudo-wires technology addresses the problems that have been mentioned. In addition, networks that are based on the MPLS technology lay the foundation for delivery of mobile services for the next generation. By incorporating the technology, the network can handle various types of traffic using a single cell site. Therefore, the provider can offer different types of services to different types of users. Use of the pseudowire technology provides efficiency since it is suited to do the ATM service and only has to handle cells that bear traffic from customers. In addition, it also provides ease of provisioning since the provisioning the TDM traffic using pseudowire provisioning eliminates the need to do interconnections at the site of each network (Ceragon, 2011). Question 5 How the widespread use of m-commerce technologies affect your life The widespread use of m-commerce technologies has brought about flexibility in life. This has also enhanced more opportunities for service providers and for customers. M-Commerce has been incorporated in retails, services, finance, information technology and telecommunication. This has been widely accepted as the popular way of carrying out business. Jahanshahi et al (2010) contended that M-Commerce encompasses all forms of business to business, business to customer and customer to customer treads. It therefore creates an easy way in which interactions can be done between various people. The sites of M-Commerce are also more accessible than those of e-Commerce. This means that it is easier for one to get information about the market from their mobiles. Various applications that have been brought about by mobile devices like apple and android have commerce applications and this makes purchasing easier. M-Commerce has therefore changed lives because marketing has been made to target the needs of users and those needs are met easily. This has enabled the purchase of products that suit the requirements that customers have and as a result, the value obtained from products and services has improved. This has been made possible in the way service providers strive to satisfy these needs. Case Study 2: Net Neutrality: Neutral Networks Work Question 1 Network Neutrality; Reasons for and Against Network neutrality will hold that all internet providers have to treat data sources equally. This means that there will be a managed flow of data together with the speed at which internet users will be loading their data. By managing the flow of data, user’s rights are supported. Since there will be no restrictions, people will be able to load and to access any site that they wish to access; except those that the local government decides against. Furthermore, there will be no throttling. This means that with network neutrality, internet service providers will be able to change the transfer rates for downloading and uploading data. Additionally, there will be no restrictions on what anyone can upload or what they can download other than the connection rates. It also limits capitalism because there will be a level playing ground for every competing company. This allows start ups to be easier and it provides entree to new potential consumers. In essence, network neutrality can be equated to a market that is free. Internet providers should not be given the powers to limit and control the flow of data and this eliminates discrimination that has been observed in cases where the network is not neutral. Net neutrality also has its disadvantages. For instance, the government could decide to issue restrictions on parts of the internet. It is also a limiting factor to competition since there will be no struggle to provide the best services. Despite these disadvantages, I support the concept of network neutrality (Gorman, 2012). Question 2 The Federal Communications Commission regulates the manner in which the internet service providers can manage traffic of the internet over other networks. It uses an internet policy of non-discrimination to internet traffic depending on reasonable management of the network. Ruane (2011) stated that the FCC is instructed to ensure that there is a timely and reasonable basis of capability for communications for all people. It also required that there was internet service providers do not discriminate against any networks services based on the content that they provide. This meant that it was allowed for one to slow down the entire network during peak times of use but it was not allowed for them to block some sites like BitTorrent. Albanesius (2012) contended with what Lessig said; that net neutrality rules were approved along three lines of transparency, no blocking of other services and prohibition of unreasonable discrimination. Question 3 Lessig stated that the zero price regulation (ZPR) requires that if a broadband provider of a network makes a particular data its priority, then it has to prioritize all the data of the same stated type irrespective of the origin and without imposing a supplement. However, he states that this regulation is misleading. In addition, he says that it blocks productive discrimination, presenting the example of when an iFilm wants fast pipes yet the consumer does not want it. Another regulation stated is the zero discrimination surcharges, ZDS. Under this, the provider’s incentive is supposed to be centered on prices that are inflating through the creation of scarcity and making charges to the corporations that consume a lot of bandwidth. He used the example of Google paying X while iFilm paying 2X; and this was not right according to him. This was said to be discrimination among equal providers. Therefore, he said that ZDS was misleading and it blocked productive discrimination. By and large, the FCC requires that consumers should be entitled to internet access and get internet content of their choice. They are also entitled to use services and run applications of their own choice (Ruane, 2012). I support this belief that companies should have this right since there are variations in the amount of data that is accessed at different times and it is therefore upon the company is not faced by inflated prices. Question 4 The internet does not use congestion pricing because while using the internet, one determines the amount of band that is required. Making a comparison to the use of electricity, when one plugs a cable on the wall; they do not specify the amount of data that they require. Similarly, comparison with cars where they are required to pay tolls before they enter into city areas in the day is part of congestion pricing. For the case of the internet, you pay for the bands to be used. It is similar to requiring something to be fixed yet it has not been damaged. Henderson et al (2002) added that congestion pricing of the internet is reported to bring more efficient utilization of the network by considering social costs into the account. But this is also stated to have its disadvantages because someone will not want to be charged a congestion fee yet the performance they get from the ISP and the network is poor. This concept purports that in internet services, the quality of the service received is what determines the use and this is the reason as to why congestion pricing cannot be incorporated into the internet industry. Question 5 For a business that depends on millions of people being able to stream videos on demand like the You Tube, it would require that the heavier users pay more for the videos. It is this extra money that is used to raise the internet’s bandwidth so that everyone could access the internet and the prices would go down. For a neutral network, this extra price would not be paid and as such, the extra services would not be realized. In addition, the business would require that there is privacy in terms of the types of videos that the users access. Using the net neutrality would mean that internet service providers would be able to monitor everything that heir customers viewed. This limits the privacy that is experienced by the users and viewers of the video. It is also necessary that for such a business, the amount of band that is used is larger than the amount of band used in mails. Mails use very small amounts of band. Comparing these bands to the ones used in videos would mean that the videos do not get enough of what they deserve in terms of band. Therefore, if a business runs based on the amount of videos accessed and viewed by customers, then net neutrality is not the best idea (Phil for Humanity, 2013). References Albanesius, (2011). FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Take Effect Nov. 20. Accessed on March 14, 2013 from: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393442,00.asp. Broadband Forum, (2010). Use of MPLS in Mobile Backhaul Networks. Accessed March 14th 2013 from: www.broadband-forum.org/.../MPLS-MobileBackhaul.pdf. Ceragon, (2011). Backhaul Migration Pseudowire or Native? Accessed on March 14th 2013 from: http://www.ceragon.com/files/library/Ceragon%20%20PseudoWire%20or%20Native%5E2%20 Gorman, J. (2012). Network Neutrality: Benefits and Disadvantages. Student Deliverable, IT Section. Australia. Henderson et al, (2002).Congestion Pricing Paying Your Way in Communication Networks. IEEE Internet Computing. Pp. 77-81. India, R. (2013). Mobile Commerce, M-Commerce Services, Mobile Commerce in India, Advantages and History of Mobile Commerce. Accessed on March 14, 2013 from: http://www.roseindia.net/services/m-commerce/mobile-commerce.shtml. Jahanshahi et al (2010). ‘Mobile Commerce beyond Electronic Commerce: Issue and Challenges.’ Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences. Vol. 1 No. 2: 119-129. Kappel et al, (2006). Web Engineering: The Discipline of Systematic Development of Web Applications. John Wiley & Sons. Germany. Phil for Humanity, (2013). The Pros and Cons of Network Neutrality. Accessed on March 14, 2013 from: http://www.philforhumanity.com/Pros_and_Cons_of_Net_Neutrality.html. Ruane, K. (2011). The FCC’s Authority to Regulate Net Neutrality After Comcast v. FCC. CRS Report for Congress. Congregational Research Service. Tarasewich et al (2002). ‘Issues in Mobile e-Commerce.’ Communications of the Association for Information Systems. Volume 8: 41-64. Read More