Price competition in horizontal and vertical differentiation: Focusing on the WiBro and HSDPA

In this paper, I analyze the mobile broadband services market characterized by vertical and horizontal differentiation. Vertical differentiation as service quality differentiation is based on the transmission speed of mobile internet service and horizontal differentiation as spatial differentiation is based on the service coverage. Theoretical explanations for the competitive price policy have been developed in the game context of Wireless Broadband (WiBro) which represent the high quality within the limited service coverage and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which represent relatively low quality with nation-wide service. When the WiBro has a mobile broadband service quality advantage and the difference in quality is sufficiently low, the price of WiBro with limited service coverage is relatively lower than that of HSDPA. This occurs because the advantage of WiBro's vertical service differentiation is offset by the disadvantage of horizontal differentiation. The difference in the quality of mobile internet service, however, is not too high, the price of WiBro is relatively higher than that of HSDPA. Moreover, when the service quality of WiBro is sufficiently high, the low quality HSDPA service faces no demand.