The McKinsey Quarterly

remaking Portugal Telecom article, international growth, Strategy & Analysis

April 2011 

Remaking Portugal Telecom: An interview with CEO Zeinal Bava

How PT rose from the ashes of a hostile-takeover bid and then the loss of its all-important subsidiary in Brazil.

Recent Thinking

The Archive

2009

2008

  • February 2008 

    Getting more from prepaid mobile services

    As the industry matures, mobile operators won’t be able to count on a flood of new customers to fuel growth, so they must create more value from those they already have—including prepaid ones.

2007

2006

  • December 2006 

    How telecoms can get more from Internet Protocol

    As telecommunications carriers invest heavily in new IP technologies, the path to profitability is uncertain—but the migration effort yields the best results when carriers get the basics right.

2005

2004

  • October 2004 

    Meeting the no-frills mobile challenge

    Many people shopping for mobile-telephone services don’t want expensive features. Low-cost providers are stepping in to garner a sizable chunk of this growing market.

  • August 2004 

    A new route for telecom deregulation

    Regulation and technology have loosened the incumbents’ grip on the ‘last mile’ in telecommunications, but weakening these companies further could make them abandon their vital investments in infrastructure.

  • May 2004 

    China's market for mobile phones

    Original-design manufacturers in South Korea and Taiwan are key allies for global telecom companies that wish to compete in China.

  • March 2004 

    When efficient capital and operations go hand in hand

    Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s head of mobile phones and a former CFO, discusses strategic organization, performance measurement, and the value of financial transparency.

  • February 2004 

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2003

  • February 2003 

    Telecom: Advantage, France and Germany

    The United States still leads the pack in fixed-line services. But France and Germany have the advantage in mobile ones.

  • February 2003 

    Why European ISPs need partners

    Subscription services promise huge revenues for Europe’s Internet service providers. But even the biggest will have to share resources.

2002

  • December 2002 

    Baby Bells on hold

    The Baby Bells have survived the worst of the telecom downturn, but the growth of their call-management services is now faltering.

  • December 2002 

    What's next for Eastern European telcos?

    To survive in the European Union, telecom incumbents in Eastern Europe must streamline their operations on all levels.

  • November 2002 

    Wi-Fi goes to Washington

    A new technology could not only restart economic growth but also help connect everyone, everywhere to the Internet—at low cost.

2001

  • December 2001 

    Making money where it's scarce

    Far from widening the income gap between rich and poor countries, digital information technology might some day close it.

  • November 2001 

    Weathering telecom's dark and stormy night

    Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, explains why the future still looks good for the telecommunications industry.

  • May 2001 

    Mobile portals mobilize for scale

    Most of today's mobile portals are likely to fail. The winners will build the right partnerships and alliances.

  • February 2001 

    DSL will win where it matters

    Most of the money in broadband access will be made serving midsize and small businesses, and in this segment DSL wins hands down.

  • February 2001 

    Profit in wireless B2B

    Wireless business services are changing the way companies work. The biggest slices of the pie will probably go to system integrators and to developers of platforms and applications.

2000

  • December 2000 

    Asia’s wireless future

    McKinsey undertook detailed interviews with mobile-phone users in Asia. Half of all respondents—and even more of the high-value ones—said they would switch operators to get access to wireless data services.

  • June 2000 

    From e-commerce to Euro-commerce

    Europe is now playing catch-up to the United States in electronic business, but the European game may well have a different outcome.

  • June 2000 

    M-commerce: Advantage, Europe

    Surprise! Europe will almost certainly take the lead in mobile commerce.

  • June 2000 

    Value on the line

    Europe’s telecom companies are hard-pressed to grow fast enough to satisfy their shareholders. Scale and focus should be their mantra.

1999

  • November 1999 

    What kind of telco is the fairest of them all?

    A McKinsey study shows that while older companies in the telecom industry have done well, new ones have done better: more than half the value created since the breakup of AT&T comes from companies not spawned by the Bell monopoly.

  • August 1999 

    Dial "M" for merger

    With the day of the $1 trillion telco at hand, regulatory supervision is needed to solve the problems created by the European industry’s accelerating wave of consolidation.

1998

  • November 1998 

    Who will connect you?

    The bottleneck in local networks is opening up. That puts 90 percent of service revenues up for grabs. What consumers get will depend on where they are.

  • May 1998 

    Full telecom competition in Europe is years away

    The EU’s five-year-old dream of a uniformly wired and regulated Europe is still just a gleam in Eurocrats’ eyes.

1997

1995

  • February 1995 

    Getting telecoms privatization right

    Governments have no choice, but will they get it right? How not to wipe out 10 to 50 percent of value. Not ownership, but the trade-offs among availability, costs, and quality.

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