Critical success factors in mobile communications same concept in different settings) was applicable. The concept of mobile communication diffusion could be measured across the two economies, as the technologies and adoption patterns were found to be similar -although motivations may differ. We used the open coding method to elicit emerging themes and build them into critical success factors As the comparative method often stimulates theory building [8], we expected to synthesise the critical success factors that may emerge into future frameworks for furthering academic research A variety of themes such as mobile penetration rates of mainly cellular phones, pricing of mobile packages, activity/motivation of cellular providers, availability of phones emerged as critical success factors. The pap the research. Subsequently, we build is structured as follows. We begin with a contextual introduction and methodology of taxonomy on relevant mobile technologies and standards to place our research in context Further, we analyse emerging themes, elicit critical success factors and draw conclusions to form ground for further research 3 Definitions and taxonomies a common definition of mobile communication was found to be evasive due to the evolutionary nature of the term as well as the differences in interpretation among global communities. In broad terms, mobile communications encompasses any form of communication that is exchanged over mobile networks [5]. The term is increasingly used as a reference to a broad spectrum of applications ranging from communications to infotainment, consumer transactions and corporate services [9]. Mobile communications imply a connected society, increased speed of service, simplicity and convenience [10] To place our research in the context, we attempted to build a taxonomy of mobile communication technologies that are relevant in the following paragraphs. The foremost is the mobile or cellular phone which is basically a two-way walkie-talkie that acts like a telephone [11]. In the cellular' phone system, the geographic region is divided into cells, to make most use of a limited number of transmission frequencies [7]. Each connection, or conversation, requires its own dedicated frequency and the terms analogue' and digital'refer to this transmission mechanism. The major difference is in how the audio signals are transmitted between the phone and base station. With analogue systems, the audio is modulated directly onto a carrier while with digital systems the audio is converted to digitised samples, transmitted and converted back at the receiving end [7]. The earlier mobile systems were analogue (e.g. AMPS) and the latest are digital (e.g. GSM). As technology progressed, analog systems are getting phased out, and digital systems are either adapted or adopted-depending on the country [7] GSM is one of the leading digital cellular systems, introduced in 1991. It uses narrowband TDMA which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency As of April 2003, GSM service has become the de facto standard in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa [4]. TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)is a technology for delivering digital wireless service using time-division multiplexing and is the second most popular digital wireless standard [12]. TDMa works by dividing a radio frequency into time slots and then allocating slots to multiple calls. In this way, a single frequency can support multiple, simultaneous data channels [13]Critical success factors in mobile communications 89 same concept in different settings) was applicable. The concept of mobile communication diffusion could be measured across the two economies, as the technologies and adoption patterns were found to be similar – although motivations may differ. We used the open coding method to elicit emerging themes and build them into critical success factors. As the comparative method often stimulates theory building [8], we expected to synthesise the critical success factors that may emerge into future frameworks for furthering academic research. A variety of themes such as mobile penetration rates of mainly cellular phones, pricing of mobile packages, activity/motivation of cellular providers, availability of phones emerged as critical success factors. The paper is structured as follows. We begin with a contextual introduction and methodology of the research. Subsequently, we build taxonomy on relevant mobile technologies and standards to place our research in context. Further, we analyse emerging themes, elicit critical success factors and draw conclusions to form ground for further research. 3 Definitions and taxonomies A common definition of mobile communication was found to be evasive due to the evolutionary nature of the term as well as the differences in interpretation among global communities. In broad terms, mobile communications encompasses any form of communication that is exchanged over mobile networks [5]. The term is increasingly used as a reference to a broad spectrum of applications ranging from communications to infotainment, consumer transactions and corporate services [9]. Mobile communications imply a connected society, increased speed of service, simplicity and convenience [10]. To place our research in the context, we attempted to build a taxonomy of mobile communication technologies that are relevant in the following paragraphs. The foremost is the mobile or cellular phone which is basically a two-way walkie-talkie that acts like a telephone [11]. In the ‘cellular’ phone system, the geographic region is divided into cells, to make most use of a limited number of transmission frequencies [7]. Each connection, or conversation, requires its own dedicated frequency and the terms ‘analogue’ and ‘digital’ refer to this transmission mechanism. The major difference is in how the audio signals are transmitted between the phone and base station. With analogue systems, the audio is modulated directly onto a carrier while with digital systems the audio is converted to digitised samples, transmitted and converted back at the receiving end [7]. The earlier mobile systems were analogue (e.g. AMPS) and the latest are digital (e.g. GSM). As technology progressed, analog systems are getting phased out, and digital systems are either adapted or adopted – depending on the country [7]. GSM is one of the leading digital cellular systems, introduced in 1991. It uses narrowband TDMA which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency. As of April 2003, GSM service has become the de facto standard in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa [4]. TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) is a technology for delivering digital wireless service using time-division multiplexing and is the second most popular digital wireless standard [12]. TDMA works by dividing a radio frequency into time slots and then allocating slots to multiple calls. In this way, a single frequency can support multiple, simultaneous data channels [13]