Visitors to Portugal are immediately struck by the number of people walking down the street, sitting in cafes or heading home on the bus who are chatting away on their mobile telephones. In fact, the Portuguese are among the leaders in Europe in cell phone use and telecoms company Optimus is at the forefront of those operators providing mobile services.

"We´re one of the most successful operators in Europe in terms of market share and of revenue per user," says Antonio Casanova, the London-educated CEO who joined the company in 1998. Owned by Sonae.com, Telecommunicaçoes Celulares, France Telecom, Maxistar and a state holding company, Optimus has enjoyed enormous growth in the sector and now boasts around 1.5 million customers, or 20 percent of the market.

Last November, in what is known as a "beauty contest" among bidders, the Portuguese government granted Optimus one of four licenses for the latest generation UMTS services. Under the system, all the companies pay a fixed price for the licenses and are chosen for their abilities to deliver.

Analysts say that while the government garners less revenue than in a straight auction, the "beauty contest" system benefits the customers because the resulting services will be cheaper.

"This is all part of the government´s efforts here in Portugal to ‘democratize´ information technology so everyone gets a chance to take part," explains Mr. Casanova. "And as a company, we´ve always been in favor of what we call customer relevant applications´ and we believe that strategy has contributed to our success."

According to the latest government figures, mobile phone penetration in Portugal is a very high 58 percent while Internet penetration is only around 7 percent. Many users are excited at the advent of the new generation technology which will combine mobile phone services and the Internet. And Optimus is perfectly positioned to benefit.

"Many people here in Portugal are more familiar with the cell phone than the Web," the Optimus executive points out, "so it is believed that most access to the Internet will be through the mobile systems and that is where we come in."

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