[Ben]

http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/marketingstrategy/images/PHONE-WARS_2000.htm

PHONE WARS 2000
THE UK CELLULAR TELEPHONE NETWORKS

This is a really great case study by Kostis Christodoulou of the London Business School. It covers everything from Mercury/One2One starting out with just 25% coverage, to how Orange transformed the landscape of the mobile phone industry in the UK.

You'll also be pleased to know that "The UK Government announced in 1996 that it intends to phase out analogue networks by 2005" - follow the link for more classics!

I'm sure you'll all have some fun with this ;) Don't take it too seriously!

[Hands0n]

"The increase in growth rates was primarily driven by a surge during November and December 1999 when consumers bought the Pay As You Talk packages in large numbers"

Oh my, oh my, how history repeats itself :eek:

What a fascinating read - bringing back many memories of the times.

Some happy; (Cellnet launch was a real high - making my first call from the car with a car kit installed into a briefcase - we couldn't get hold of the portable handsets at the time). The notion of developing into one of today's handsets would have been completely absurd at the time.

Some not so happy; Ooooh the One2One start up was quite dire. The promise of cheap calls and cheap handsets. Having got used to fairly ubiquitous network coverage the reality of One2One's early network was a shock - we had completely forgotten how Cellnet & Vodafone's first network had to roll out and how bad that was in its time! It was a very rocky start (de ja vous) but by the time they were bought out the network coverage had improved well. I remember the [One2One] handsets being tiddly in comparison to the "Big Two" at the time.

And here we are in 2005 with it all happening all over again with 3G and with the exciting prospect of re-living all of this all over again when 4G launches in years to come.................... I can't wait :p