Guest Opinion: Wireless Already An Alternative To Landline Service Abroad
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From the February 22, 1999 issue of Wireless Week
By Tom Bartlett
Over the past couple of months, our industry has been buzzing over stories of individuals, small
businesses and even whole rural U.S. towns that have gone completely wireless. Reporters,
analysts and colleagues keep asking me if I think wireless will ever become a truly viable landline
alternative. My answer? Just look past the U.S. borders and you'll see it's already happening. In
Finland, 50 percent of all phones and more than half of all traffic is wireless.
Let's just say it: Most people prefer the freedom of wireless to the bonds of landlines. Wireless
adds mobility, convenience and security to our lives. As networks grow to meet demand, they
offer more powerful services and increasingly competitive pricing.
The U.S. market, with high landline penetration resulting from low prices, relatively high network
quality and sophisticated customer care, may take several years for a
"wireless-as-landline-alternative" model to fully develop. But the timeline will be far shorter in areas
where landline service is less competitive and where few differences exist between the two service
offerings. I see this happening today.
For example, unlike the United States, Europe's calling party pays standard encourages wireless
users to leave their phones on, and having a single technology standard provides simple and
transparent access to service across the continent and beyond.
As Finland achieved late in 1998, wireless penetration in Italy should be deeper than landline late
this year with more than 30 million subscribers. Omnitel, which added more than 6 million
customers in its three years of service, delivers coverage everywhere, from the Vatican steps to the
Alpine peaks and offers peerless customer care levels in the European telecommunications
industry. In addition, landline service quality issues, calling party pays, more favorable
long-distance rates for mobile customers and aggressive lifestyle marketing helped create a large
customer segment that sees their "telefonini" (or "little phone") as their primary communications
tool.
In Mexico, 90 percent of the population has no access, or hope of access, to a landline phone.
Iusacell, the country's second largest communications company, has served more than 16,000
customers in a wireless local loop trial for more than two years, and hundreds of its wireless pay
phones now dot the Mexican landscape. Iusacell's prepaid rates, market-leading customer care
and new digital service already have helped drive "celludensity" beyond 2 percent, with population
coverage far beyond that of landline. With several new potential competitors entering the market
and calling party pays scheduled for early 1999, celludensity should surpass teledensity within 10
years.
At Bell Atlantic, we are helping our investments worldwide understand and maximize the
opportunity this trend will present. And while the timelines and drivers may vary by market,
especially in develop-
ing nations, the result will be the same: Wireless has and will become a viable landline alternative
on a wide scale.
Tom Bartlett is president and CEO of Bell Atlantic International Wireless.
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