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The past two decades in the Austrian and European Telecommunication Market have shown that price was the ultimate argument to win customers. But does this make sense? Immense investments in infrastructure were and will be necessary but all operators have to face decreasing revenues because of intense price competition. From an economic point of view such a development makes no sense and is an alarming one. Interdependencies of various existing market forces of whom the price is an important one, show such a development is not as unexpected as it seems. The more crucial question to answer is if such a development could stay valid under current changing market conditions and the technological revolutions lying ahead. In future operators have to differentiate precise into past market conditions and future expectations which will have to focus much more on the customer and different customer needs. Future customer requirements will be significant for successful future pricing strategies. Qualitative aspects will make the difference to obtain a premium.

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Dr. Klaus M. Steinmaurer MBA is heading the Legal and Regulatory Department of T-Mobile Austria GmbH. He entered in the telecommunication business in 1996 when market liberalisation in Austria started. With his broad market knowledge he is (co)author of various articles and books concerning market relevant legal and economic topics.

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