International expansion of wireless telecommunications service providers: A comparative analysis

Facing increasing levels of competition and regulation in their maturing domestic markets some prominent telecommunications service providers (TSPs) have begun to expand their wireless operations internationally. This paper investigates the geographic expansion strategies of five major TSPs: Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Singapore Telecommunications, Vodafone, and America Movil. All of these companies have invested heavily in operations abroad, in some cases in the same countries. Using a proportionate customer weighting scheme the paper analyzes the impact of the TSPs' expansion strategies on the companies' performance from 2002 to 2005 in terms of the growth, profitability, and risk characteristics of their wireless telecommunications business portfolios.