| Summary: | M.Ing. === The telecommunications industry worldwide is experiencing massive downsizing activities as the mobile telecommunications market is flooded with mobile operators. In Europe and other leading countries world wide, fixed line operators are able to cover more than 90% of the population of the country and there is not such a necessity for a mobile service as in a country such as South Africa, where less than 50% of the population is connected to a fixed line operator. Together with many investors, planning to create substantial returns on investments saturated the communication market in these worldleading countries. When mobile data transfer, in the form of GPRS (General Packet Radios Services) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), was developed it was estimated that the amount of mobile data transferred (via mobile operators) per annum would exceed the amount of data transferred by normal fixed line transport (fixed line operators). Many mobile cellular operators worldwide have invested in these technologies but their ROI (Return on Investment) is not nearly as good as was estimated in the initial feasibility study of the technologies. Together, these issues have had a negative impact on all the world leading mobile communication infrastructure suppliers, which had to downsize to accommodate the decrease in world business. Only 3rd world countries (such as in Africa) are still expanding their mobile networks and are creating some business opportunities for the world leading suppliers, but it is unfortunately not sufficient to sustain the current business. With the initial roll out of GSM (Global system for mobile communication) network infrastructure suppliers could ask what they want for the equipment and services supplied, as these were hard to imitate, but as the market grew, more competitors were able to meet their standards in equipment quality and better the price and service.
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