Haven't seen this posted, GSM Nervous>
To: T L Comiskey (709 )
From: Ruffian
Tuesday, Oct 26 1999 2:35PM ET
Reply # of 713
From the October 25, 1999, issue of Wireless Week
GSM Allies Seek Global Branding
By Peggy Albright
Members of Europe's GSM community should not be surprised that things are different
when they visit the United States.
Here, we drive on the right side of the road and steer from the left side of the car. We
measure road distances in miles, not
kilometers. Our portable hair dryers draw electricity at 110 volts, not 220. And our cellular
customers choose GSM phones less
often.
While cultural differences were surely not the intended message at the GSM Association
biannual plenary, held in Montreal last
week, the reality was clear after the event. There, international delegates heard the latest
market figures.
Worldwide, GSM subscribers reached the 215 million number last month. Fifty-one
percent of the globe's wireless phone
customers use GSM devices, and two-thirds of all digital subscribers have picked GSM.
Figures released for the United States and Canada combined, in contrast, show 4.8 million
GSM customers, up 620,000 in the third
quarter and 2.5 million over last year. Canada's Microcell claims 460,000 of the total
count, leaving 4.3 million for the United
States.
But that 4.3 million U.S. figure pales against the competition's numbers. CDMA carrier
Sprint PCS added 720,000 customers in
the last three months, bringing its subscriber base to 4.7 million. TDMA powerhouse
AT&T will post its latest financial results
today.
Acknowledging that GSM needs to increase brand awareness here, the North American
GSM Alliance unveiled a new logo that
will identify GSM phones as part of the "GSM Global Network."
Says Bob Brown, executive director of the North American GSM Alliance: "We believe it
will help customers associate the world
superiority of these phones with the high-quality service we provide."
But the ability to create a cohesive market within the framework of a global strategy may
be impossible, one analyst says.
"The best thing that could happen to GSM is for all these companies to be acquired and
live under one roof," says The Gartner
Group's Bob Egan. "Absent that, the splintering of these companies [presents a scenario
that] is absolutely not competitive in the
U.S."
Mark Lowenstein, analyst for the Yankee Group in Boston, agrees. "There's going to be
more sell-offs, more merger and
acquisition activity," he says. Powertel, the BellSouth Mobility DCS properties and Pacific
Bell Wireless are all potential
candidates, he adds.
Increasingly, drivers for consolidation could come from abroad. The current consolidator,
VoiceStream Wireless Corp., has
already expanded international interests here for its investors, Finland's Sonera and
Hutchison Telecommunications--which has
firms in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.
Regardless of who controls the purse strings, as long as GSM lacks a nationwide footprint,
Europeans visiting here will have
limited use of their phones. That's another difference between home and the United States
that they're likely to notice for some
time.
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