Auction-based network selection in a market-based framework for trading wireless communications services

Digital Marketplace is a market-based framework in which a network selection mechanism is facilitated through a variant of procurement first-price sealed-bid auction; that is, wireless network operators bid for the right to transport the subscriber’s requested service over their infrastructure. In this paper, we create an economic model of this mechanism, and characterize the equilibrium under generic assumptions about the costs distributions of the network operators. Furthermore, the equilibrium is explicitly derived under more specific assumptions about the model; that is, two network operators and costs drawn from uniform distributions. In this case, we also characterize the expected prices the subscriber has to pay depending on their preferences about the service; for example, trading off quality for a lower price. Finally, we provide a numerical analysis of the case with more than two network operators.