This book distils years of work on the mobile telecommunications industry. I became interested in this industry for professional reasons during the mid-1990s, a period when the industry was making the jump from a premium service industry for mostly professional users to a truly mass market. In my capacity as an applied industrial organisation economist, I had the unique opportunity of evaluating the business plans and strategies of a large number of mobile telecommunications firms inside and outside Europe. This provided me with valuable insights into the functioning of this fascinating industry, as well as into its technological and operational concerns.

This book makes extensive use of previously published material. It thus also benefits from joint work done with Marion Hoenicke, Tommaso Valletti and, in particular, Frank Verboven. The credit to them is given in the appropriate sections throughout the book and the relevant papers are quoted in the bibliography. Researching and writing articles with all of them was an intellectually very rewarding experience, and I owe them my thanks. I also received many useful comments and hints from colleagues within the EIB and from the academic world. I would like to thank Tommaso Valletti and two anonymous referees for having read the manuscript and for their detailed comments. Ultimately, all responsibility for the views expressed remains with the author, and they do not necessarily reflect those of the European Investment Bank.