The Internationalisation of Mobile Telecommunications

Peter Curwen and Jason Whalley review the strategic operations of, and technological options available to, the 30 most prominent international mobile operators. This review is initially based upon the Asia-Pacific, African, European, Latin American and North American regions before moving on to take a worldwide perspective. The authors place these mobile operators within a wider business context via a broad ten-year appraisal of the companies involved in the entire telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) sector. The issue as to whether there truly is such a thing as a global mobile operator is addressed; the answer, in practice, is negative. Based upon the very latest data available, the underlying premise of the book is that mobile telecommunications is such a fast-moving sector that operators are obliged to alter their international strategies as circumstances unravel without necessarily having a long-term master plan, and hence that opportunism is a hallmark of operators' international strategies. This state-of-the-art overview of the internationalisation of mobile telecommunications will prove essential reading for academics and practitioners with a vested interest in technology, telecommunications and strategic management.