Meteor In The Irish Telecommunications Industry

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Meteor in the Irish telecommunications industry

Meteor Mobile was established in 2001, after having been awarded Ireland’s third mobile license in the year 1998 (ComReg, 1998). Since then, the Irish start up has acquired over a million customers and built over 40 stores nationally (meteor.ie,2013). Over the course of 12 years, Meteor has become one of the 50 best workplaces in Ireland and obtained 20% of the market share (meteor.ie, 2013) in a very tough and fast developing industry.

In this essay I will assess the attractiveness of the Irish telecommunications industry before and after its deregulation in 1998 by analyzing the forces at work within the market. I will also describe Meteor’s strategy at the time and attempt to point
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Because it showed great potential for development and growth the government issued a new license in December of 1998. This license was taken by Meteor, which after a tough fight and legal issues was able to launch its services in 2001 (independent.ie, 1999).

Meteor’s initial strategy and factors that caused it to change:

The most important thing a business should think about is its strategy. For a company launching its services it is essential to differentiate from other firms in the market (Hambrick and Fredrickson, 2001) in order to compete. Also, it must find its arenas (where will the business be active), its vehicles (How to get to chosen arenas) and the economic logic of the strategy (Hambrick and Fredrickson, 2001). Meteor was to be a mobile network services company with a national geographical scope offering medium quality products at a lower price than its competitors.

After it’s initial launch in 2001, meteor found a niche for a low price player in the industry as there was a high demand for more affordable rates from the price conscious and the youth market, this became Meteor’s initial differentiator. After its launch meteor initiated a penetration pricing strategy hoping to attract a large customer base from the start.

This initial strategy involved creating a flat fare, which was slightly more expensive than Eircel and Digifone’s off-peak rates