open markets of the Baltics’ nascent wireless communications industry as well as the
concomitant network externalities which will permit furtherance of the EU’s GSM
agenda. This paper will attempt to objectively evaluate the seldom challenged assumption
of benefit the Baltics will enjoy by ascending into an economic cooperative requiring
strict adherence to non-negotiable conditions for EU induction. Drawing from primary,
participant observation research conducted in the Baltics themselves, and by
incorporating market predictions of Western European wireless service providers, this
paper will show how the Baltics can contribute more to the wireless communications
industry currently in place in the EU than the EU will likely contribute to the Baltics’
own wireless communications industries, a discussion important for future research
consideration surrounding growth of telecommunications in the Baltics.
From the perspective of Persuasion Theory, using telecommunications as an
argumentative foil, this paper will assess the presupposition of win-win from the EU
perspective to show how the Baltics’ joining the European Union might more closely
approach a win-WIN situation, with the EU winning BIG. It will discuss the Baltics’
inclusion in the EU as viewed through the prism of wireless communications policy and
evaluate how the EU stands to advance its wireless communication interests leveraging
new markets represented by the Baltics. This paper will explore the relationship in the
wireless communication arena that will result from the Union for which the Baltics have
respectively voted, “Taip, Jaa, and Piebalsot”
*
. In all, this paper hopes to present a
balanced view of EU expansion vis-à-vis Baltic wireless communication.
*
“Yes” in Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian, the order in which the countries voted for EU inclusion
Convention