Mass Market Entry of Wireless Telecommunications

Although cellular wireless telecommunication is now availableworldwide, it still constitutes only a small percentage of overalltelecommunications traffic. Even in advanced countries suchas the USA, wireless service still remains somewhat élitist,with no more than 16% of the population having cellular phonesin 1996. As various national governments make new spectrum availablefor wireless personal communications services (PCS), and existingcellular service transforms itself into PCS, the public is demandingubiquitous, affordable high-quality wireless service. PCS willbe defined not only by its advanced technological capabilities,but also by its universal affordability. This paper describessome of the strategies new PCS service-providers are adoptingto meet this challenge. While the penetration of wireless telecommunicationin any market depends on many factors, price is a fundamentalfactor. We analyze the trends in the US and Israeli marketsusing principles of marketing science to illustrate this point.Specifically, we analyze the Israeli wireless market, with itsrevolutionary low tariff structure and project the effect asimilar tariff would have on the US cellular market. But lowerprices would also create a highly competitive, low-revenue per-minute-of-useenvironment for the operator. In the rest of the paper, we discusschanges in traffic patterns, new marketing strategies, wirelessdigital technologies, advanced planning techniques, and innovativenetwork management systems that enable companies to succeedin this new environment.