communication. They also understand from history the concept of strength in numbers.
As more members join the European Union, more potential markets emerge for mature
European wireless communications firms, and the CDMA wireless companies of the U.S.
are ever more shut out.
In the highly competitive wireless communications industry, expanding a firm’s
potential market becomes increasingly important as wireless communication penetration
rates of the most technologically advanced EU nations approach, or even exceed, 100%
(ITU, 2001). To expand its EU calling plans, Italian wireless communications company
Vodaphone Omnitel now offers “Eurozone” - a service reducing the price of incoming
calls up to 61% for subscribers using the roaming services - to their new Baltic customer
base, thereby shoring up customer retention efforts by pro-actively managing the new
wireless territory of the Baltics, (Vodaphone Omnitel, 2003).
In an interview with Pranas Kuisys, Director of the Lithuanian branch of Swedish
wireless communications firm Tele2, Mr. Kuisys shared that Tele2 anticipated that with
existing markets in continental Europe, future growth is expected to derive largely from
the cross-selling of services and products to the existing customer base, with very little
accumulation of additional market share through penetration. Conversely, in less mature
markets such as the Baltics, the company’s penetration rate remains relatively low,
Convention