Part One: Introduction

The big hype in the mobile communications market has been forced to step backwards. Mobile communication is now a part of everyday life, prices are down and consumers expect to get quality services easily and without any hassle. As regulators have opened the door to other players, the telecom business is no longer dominated by incumbent network operators; now mobile services are offered by a wide variety of large and small companies from outside the traditional telecom business. Brand building and operational cost-efficiency are now the key factors to success.

This means that companies with strong brands in other business areas may have a good chance to succeed in the telecom business, and that network operators need to rethink their strategies. The current players may be roughly divided into Network Operators (NO) that own their whole network and billing system and that may provide subscriber services; Virtual Operators (VO) or Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) that do not own a complete network but some essential network elements; and Service Providers (SP) that purchase all capacity from Network and/or Virtual Operators.