Abstract-Traditionally customers subscribe to specific providers and are served by accessing base stations (BSs) of the network of their provider. Inevitably subscribers with relatively "high" usage pattern and data-rate requirements are subsidized by the ones with lower usage and data-rates. As the wireless technology advances, a diverse set of services will be available. This paper introduces the "flex service" paradigm that allows a customer to dynamically access BSs of different providers based on various criteria, such as profile, network conditions, and offered prices. "Flex users" can select the appropriate provider and BS on a per-session basis. This work considers a diverse customer population with respect to their demand, their preference on data-rate over price, their tolerance on the blocking probabilities of their sessions, and their willingness to pay for certain services. Users can dynamically decide to buy a longterm subscription or become flex users. In this paper, we develop a rich framework for modeling and analysis of such markets in different spatio-temporal scales. We analyze the evolution of markets with the flex service paradigm, focusing on whether it can improve the quality-of-service (QoS), social welfare, flexibility and further enhance the competition among providers. The main contribution of this paper is detailed modeling and indepth performance analysis of such complex markets, in different spatial and temporal scales. It considers the perspective of clients, providers, and regulators. It demonstrates the benefits of markets with the flex service paradigm and compares them with the ones that only offer subscription contracts.

This article focuses on mechanisms that empower users with quality of experience recommendations and smart real-time analytics. It presents a user-centric recommendation system (called u-map) that enables users to collect network measurements and subjective opinion scores about the performance of various services. It also cross-correlates measurements obtained by u-map to provide geo-statistics, user profiles, and quality of experience prediction models for different services. The article also presents CoRLAB, a modular multi-layer framework for modeling and assessing various markets, services, and their evolution under a diverse set of customer populations and conditions. Umap feeds CoRLAB with user measurements and feedback in (semi) real-time. The article discusses how u-map and CoRLAB have been used to analyze telecommunication markets and services. It highlights the main research results, challenges, and potential research directions.

This paper presents the u-map, a novel user-centric geodatabase for wireless access markets that enables clients to upload information about their profile, their quality-ofexperience (QoE) feedback for a service, traffic demand, network/spectrum conditions (e.g., interference, coverage), providers, and their position (e.g., GPS-based measurements) in a spatio-temporal geo-database. To evaluate the impact of the u-map on wireless access markets and study the evolution of such markets, we have developed an economic-driven modeling framework. The framework integrates models of the channel, clients and network operators, wireless infrastructures, types of interaction, and price adaptation in a modular manner. We have implemented a simulation platform based on this framework and instantiated a cellularbased duopoly. Via simulations, we analyzed the impact of the u-map, user profiles, and network coverage of providers on the evolution of the market. The analysis demonstrates that the u-map can be beneficial to users in their network operator selection process. We also developed a proof-ofconcept implementation of the u-map and performed a preliminary analysis. Finally, the paper highlights the research directions that need to be explored for developing a robust and effective mechanism.

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