Comparison of WiBro and TD-LTE deployment networks: Implications for standards competition

It has been an enigma for the communities of practice and academia in the field of standards as to why, when the capabilities of a technology are not much different or even superior to those of their competitors, only some standards lead to commercial success. Previous literature indicates that a standard needs organisational support and legitimacy amongst audiences, including distributors, influenced by network connectivity and configuration. Using a social network analysis, this paper visualises and compares the networks of wireless broadband and time domain-long-term evolution deployment in the global market. The results show that the presence of a few key sponsors with financial resources and a large installed base is more important than the size of the network. Consequently, we draw some implications for sustainable deployment of future standards.