E-Mail: Tanya.Sammut-Bonnici@um.edu.mt
Web Site: http://staff.um.edu.mt/tsam1
Phone: + 356 79 375 976
eFax:    + 130 23 419 216

Reference: Sammut-Bonnici, T., Case Study: The Battle for Critical Mass in the UK Mobile Communications Industry. In McGee, J., H. Thomas, & D. Wilson (Eds.) Strategy: Analysis and Practice, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill, UK, 2005.

Case Introduction:
The mobile communications industry is a fascinating case of interacting forces each working to retain a threshold of power over the future of the networks. The mobile telecommunications industry is a highly interconnected industry. It is interconnected with the competitors and with its customers on a long-term basis. Industry players in the mobile communications market moderate their strategic behaviour and opt for strategies that imply a form of complex adaptive behaviour. The common goal becomes the collective survival of the firms in order to eliminate the probability that one firm will prevail and the rest will fail. A set of isomorphic (copy-cat) strategies emerges at the level of technical standards, network platforms and the consumer platform. As a result market shares of competing firms become almost equal and network externalities are reconfigured to act for the benefit of the whole industry.