Abstract

The aim of this research is to identify which of Porter’s factors used to determine the degree of competition in an industry are also relevant to the sector of telecom. We use data from 30 European telecom markets to find empirical evidence for the validity of the factors that Porter defines in his five forces model – number and size of competitors, industry growth, degree of product differentiation, market exit barriers, capacity, switching costs, fixed costs, brand loyalty. We propose a better metric for judging the likely degree of competition in any given telecom market.