All of us have been to a shopping mall or our local shopping district and observed a group of 14 to 16 year old girls laughing and giggling and talking on their cell phones.  These young ladies are typically wearing their low rider jeans and tank tops, carrying shopping bags with the latest things they just had to have and talking, talking, talking.  It is truly amazing how many of these girls have cell/mobile phones.

But it really shouldn’t be too amazing because anyone that is a parent in these times would not want a teenage girl to be out by herself or in a group without a cell phone.  Would you send your daughter out on a date with some boy you barely know without a cell phone for “an emergency situation”?  If a group of girls are going to a party don’t you want to make sure your daughter has a cell phone for her protection if a problem occurs.

I know I would not want any female member of my family to be out and about without a cell phone, so that they get help in any situation if they need it.  The combination of the environment in which we live, telecom technology and the low price of services has made the cell phone a mandatory accessory for every women in the world that can afford one.

You may ask yourself  -Why is this a big deal? Why does this matter?  What do teen-age girls have to do with the Great Market Battle?  We have all seen men and boys using cell phones. 

I believe the security aspects of cell/mobile phone services, which applies to women to a much greater extent then men, makes a huge difference in how cell phone services are perceived and establishes its priority in the telecom budgets of female consumers all over the world.

Let us fast forward seven or eight years into the future. The 14 to 16 year old teen-age girls are now 21 to 24 year old young women.  A large percentage of these young women will have completed college and are very well educated.  They are entering the work force in economies all over the world.  Many of them will be living on their own for the first time.  By the time they begin these early stages of household formation they will have been telecommunications consumers for many years.  They know how to use speed dial, voice mail and all the other features of a modern telecommunication network.  If you compare their experience to their parents experience at the same age, there is no comparison.  These young women are sophisticated telecommunications consumers that have a service requirement that is the first priority in their telecommunications expense budget.  They will not consider their cellular service to be a discretionary expense.  These young women lead active lives.  Their friends, family and coworkers communicate with them via their cell phone wherever they may be.  It is their lifeline to the world.

One must ask - What else do these young women need from a telecommunications perspective to function in today’s world?  I would surmise that Internet services are the next most important item on the list.  Depending on their jobs they may or might not have Internet access at work.  But they have been Internet users in school or at home with mom and dad before creating their own household.  They will want Internet at home via broadband access as their first choice and only accept Internet via dial-up if there is no other choice or it is prohibitively expensive.  They will also want some TV access for downtime at home but are not likely to be willing to pay much out their limited budgets.  They don’t really care how it is delivered technically.  It is not clear if these young women will need a wire line phone at home.  They can make any long distance call they need to make on their cell phone and in some markets save a lot of money by doing so.  It is likely that they will order a wire line phone only if they need access for Internet dialup. 

What is clear is that the cellular/mobile service provider to these young women is the most important telecom service provider they have and is the telecommunications company that has the first opportunity to establish brand loyalty with them.

As these young women mature, most of them will get married, have children and continue to work throughout their adult lives.  Their households will expand in stages.  Once more than one person is living in the household the decision about a household phone number becomes important. However, it is unclear at this time if the classic wire line service is the answer to the demands to our young women at that stage of her life.  We doubt that it will satisfy her after her many years of experience using personal communications services.  If a call is made to her home she will want the call rerouted to her cell phone or its voice mailbox.  When her children are at school or with a childcare provider the number to be called when there is a problem will be her cell phone number, because her cell phone will be sitting on her desk while she works or in her purse if she is out of the office.  It is her link to her family and its support system.

What about all the other telecom and media delivery services the family will need at this stage of her life?  In the old days the male of the household would take care of all the technical aspects of wiring up TVs and phones and ordering services and so forth.  In the future the extremely experienced and savvy telecom consuming women of the household will tell their husbands the services they want for themselves and the family so that family life runs as smoothly as possible.  The well-trained husbands of the world will make sure that they deliver what is required. 

Telecom companies must structure their offerings to satisfy the future mothers of the world in the same manner as many retail chains and other businesses, which lay out their stores and display their goods for their female customers today.  They must satisfy this very knowledgeable consumer group.

The ramifications of the discussion in this article are very long term.  Market shares will not change overnight because of this trend.  But for the past few years women have graduated from college that grew up in the cell phone era.  They had seven or eight years of experience using cell phones before they ever joined the work force.  They are among the first wave of women to use the cell phone as a personal life style management tool and security device.  They are among the first group to decide if they really need a wire line phone in their homes.  As a group they have the ability to fundamentally change the way that families purchase telecommunications services in the future.  They will decide what services they and their families need to have.  And they will ask themselves at what age their daughters should have their own personal communications and security capabilities.

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