Critical success factors in mobile communications Added to this has been a policy(or a technical issue)connected with the sending of SMS and prepaid mobiles. Some network providers did not deduct the cost of the SMs directly from the prepaid account but bulk billed the usage at a later stage. At times, this resulted in a large accumulation of bills over the period of three months, as the youth using the prepaid mobile was not aware of the situation and therefore kept using the mobile happily to send SMSs to the world [34] Critical Success Factor 2: Mobile subscriptions in Germany grew rapidly due fierce competition for subscribers by network providers Germany has a high teledensity of 61. 05%[35]- which is amongst the highes world. At the same time, there is little growth expected in the German fixed line market because there is hardly any growth in the number of households. In addition, there has been a continuous penetration of both rural and urban areas with the Isdn initiative during the 1990s [28]. Many households have ISDN lines providing three numbers and two channels for telecommunication. Generally, the telecom infrastructure is good and in the eastern part-or former GDR-it is among the most modern in the world. Security is deemed to be good as there have not been many instances of telecommunication fraud or subscriber embezzlement. This is further assisted by the penetration of digital lines which make it far more difficult to tamper with[28]. In recent years, there has been a substantial move towards the personal phone. This has been facilitated by the continuous drop in mobile phone handset and subscription prices [35]. There is a general notion that you should be able to contact a person directly at any time without first having to call the household and go in search for the person. Critical Success Factor 3: The expectation to get direct, omnipresent contact with ne, and therefore providing a personal phone for each person, rather tha household phone, seem to be a motivator for mobile communication in German The mobile phone can generally be seen as the liberation of people from the fixed location requirement. The mobile phone in combination with the internet has made the vision of location-independent work possible. The mobile phone is an integral part of today's private as well as professional lives and has even found its way into unlikely vices for ity and reliability s[34] There is a continuous trend for more and more industries to use mobile technology in their day-to-day transactions. This may be the tracking of staff, retrieving information from the server while with a customer, feeding back important data while on a building site, doing last-minute negotiations or simply changing appointments. The mobile phone has found its way into day-to-day life in Germany and will continue to be an important ay to communicate [34-36] Critical Success Factor 4: The accentuated growth of mobile communication continues as it is a cost-effective way of business/personal communication and demolishes the person-location restriction SMS is probably one of the most unlikely and underestimated success stories of mobile communication in Germany. Being an unwanted and rather reluctant side service to GSM, around 75% of mobile phone users use SMS at least once a month [17]. within the age group of 14-19 year olds, more than half are sending more than one Sms per day [37]. The total number of SMs messages had well passed the 5 billion mark in 2000 and is expected to rise even further. This trend has not been affected by a recer price rise for the SMs within all German networks which, in some instances, nearly doubled the cost of sending an SMS. The structure of payment for SMS is such that mostCritical success factors in mobile communications 93 Added to this has been a policy (or a technical issue) connected with the sending of SMS and prepaid mobiles. Some network providers did not deduct the cost of the SMS directly from the prepaid account but bulk billed the usage at a later stage. At times, this resulted in a large accumulation of bills over the period of three months, as the youth using the prepaid mobile was not aware of the situation and therefore kept using the mobile happily to send SMSs to the world [34]. Critical Success Factor 2: Mobile subscriptions in Germany grew rapidly due to fierce competition for subscribers by network providers. Germany has a high teledensity of 61.05% [35] – which is amongst the highest in the world. At the same time, there is little growth expected in the German fixed line market because there is hardly any growth in the number of households. In addition, there has been a continuous penetration of both rural and urban areas with the ISDN initiative during the 1990s [28]. Many households have ISDN lines providing three numbers and two channels for telecommunication. Generally, the telecom infrastructure is good and in the eastern part – or former GDR – it is among the most modern in the world. Security is deemed to be good as there have not been many instances of telecommunication fraud or subscriber embezzlement. This is further assisted by the penetration of digital lines which make it far more difficult to tamper with [28]. In recent years, there has been a substantial move towards the personal phone. This has been facilitated by the continuous drop in mobile phone handset and subscription prices [35]. There is a general notion that you should be able to contact a person directly at any time without first having to call the household and go in search for the person. Critical Success Factor 3: The expectation to get direct, omnipresent contact with anyone, and therefore providing a personal phone for each person, rather than a household phone, seem to be a motivator for mobile communication in Germany. The mobile phone can generally be seen as the liberation of people from the fixed location requirement. The mobile phone in combination with the internet has made the vision of location-independent work possible. The mobile phone is an integral part of today’s private as well as professional lives and has even found its way into unlikely areas like policing or other services for security and reliability reasons [34]. There is a continuous trend for more and more industries to use mobile technology in their day-to-day transactions. This may be the tracking of staff, retrieving information from the server while with a customer, feeding back important data while on a building site, doing last-minute negotiations or simply changing appointments. The mobile phone has found its way into day-to-day life in Germany and will continue to be an important way to communicate [34–36]. Critical Success Factor 4: The accentuated growth of mobile communication continues as it is a cost-effective way of business/personal communication and demolishes the person–location restriction. SMS is probably one of the most unlikely and underestimated success stories of mobile communication in Germany. Being an unwanted and rather reluctant side service to GSM, around 75% of mobile phone users use SMS at least once a month [17]. Within the age group of 14–19 year olds, more than half are sending more than one SMS per day [37]. The total number of SMS messages had well passed the 5 billion mark in 2000 and is expected to rise even further. This trend has not been affected by a recent price rise for the SMS within all German networks which, in some instances, nearly doubled the cost of sending an SMS. The structure of payment for SMS is such that most