The change exhibited by this market since then has been phenomenal. This has occurred not only due to the rapid technological advancement but also due to a change in the positioning of a mobile phone in the consumer's mind. Mobile phones have gone from being very expensive and cumbersome pieces of equipment, belonging to your stockbroker, to becoming a small, inexpensive and attractive way to fulfil every day communication. Telecommunication networks are currently undergoing profound changes, they converting slowly from circuit switched, to packet switched connectivity and from single purpose networks, facilitating only voice transmission to multi service networks supporting various non voice interactions and other applications. This has come to be known as the 3G advancement in the business and is set to take the world by storm as it becomes readily available. Already we see the availability of a GPRS tariff on the high street and this, although in its infant stages is working its way towards the 3rd generation mobile phone.
In what can only be described as one of the most ferocious business environments, much of text book strategy still stands true and is very often implemented. Being an employee of Vodafone Ltd, one of the leading UK network operators, I see this being the case all the time. For the purpose of this review I have been in contact with the marketing department and found out about how exactly their business operates. Managers are faced with a tremendous amount of responsibility to produce weekly reports about the happenings of the industry and how they advise what the consequent responses should be. These reports are then used to plan and implement strategies. Included in these reports are matters including recent PEST analysis's or recent changes, competitor analysis, business comparisons and stake holder expectations to name but a few. Probably among the most important elements here, is the PEST analysis, which looks at what external environmental factors there are affecting the business and which of these are important at the present time and the future.