“It was well after midnight when I put the thick document called ‘Invitation to Tender for a concession to provide GSM services in Hungary’ on my bedside cabinet. The document had been reissued on October 15, 1992. I had quickly scanned, and hopefully absorbed, the main points. The tender was organized as a beauty contest and the winning consortia would be allowed to participate in the auction to be held next year. There were two concessions up for grabs, one that would surely go to the existing NMT operator Westel (US West & Bell Atlantic) and one for a new party. It was shut eye time now, I was tired. The flight to Budapest would leave early in the morning, so I had only a few hours to rest.” TechnologyMobileMobile PhonesHungaryBudapestMobile PhoneGsmWestel Book:Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand? Source: Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?
“The former banker helped us with the financial plans, figuring out how much we could afford to bid in the auction. We concluded that we could certainly bid USD 45 million for a 20-year license in Hungary. Swedish Telecom was very confident, their CEO had said in radio interviews that he thought that 1 in 4 people would have a mobile phone by the year 2000. This was overly optimistic according to the other consortium partners. They were more conservative and we had difficulty persuading them to put up more money” MobileSwedishMobile PhonesHungaryTelecommunicationsMobile Phone Book:Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand? Source: Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?