Pricing wireless access services: the effect of offloading and users' bounded rationality

Offloading through WiFi access networks has been recently proposed as a cost-effective solution for coming up against the unprecedented increase in the mobile data traffic volume. However, apart from reducing the operational costs of a network operator, WiFi access can be also promoted as an alternative low-cost service for users with low willingness-to-pay. In this paper, we consider a monopolistic scenario of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) offering LTE and WiFi access services and make the optimal pricing decisions. We further show that the presence of reluctant users to switch to the WiFi service could increase the profits of the MVNO.