MTN: Investing in Africa
Around the 1980's mobile telephones started showing up for commercial use. They were analog style, cumbersome and expensive to purchase. In the 1990's digital technology was born and mobile phones became readily available to everyone and less expensive than the previous ten years. By 1998 over 30% of the world population within the areas of Europe, Asia, and North America had mobile telephones.
With this type of usage of mobile telephones, Mobile Telephone Network plc (MTN) was born in 1993 attempting to earn their share in the South Africa market for mobile telephones. By 1999 MTN had over 1.3 million subscribes in South Africa. MTN is only one of three in the southern hemisphere to receive the ISO 9001 Certification for Highly Qualified Service. MTN is also one of only two mobile phone operator services in South Africa. The competition is a company called Vodacom.
A meeting was held in Johannesburg in 1999 to decide if MTN should go global. Globalization refers to markets and production. Globalization also refers to the merging of separate national markets into one global marketplace. Most global markets products are now industrial goods and materials that serve a universal need the world over. As companies grow beyond domestic to international areas they bring many of the assets that served them well. Such as the product, operating and marketing strategies, and brand name. With this in mind MTN's key issues to be discussed included:
? Should MTN attempt additional foreign entries?
? How should MTN assess the eleven countries open for bid in the next year? Along with which count ...