In October 1999, Canada's TIW surprises the world by winning the 3rd mobile telecom license in the Czech Republic-beating most of Europe's major telcos, including Vodafone, British Telecom, France Telecom, Orange and Telenor. To win, TIW employs very aggressive bid commitments, such as an extremely fast network and service rollout (the fastest in GSM history, as it turns out), and very competitive tariffs.

From the outset, the Oskar brand is designed to appeal to the culture and life of the Czech people, and evolve in-step with the development of the Czech mobile market. Oskar becomes human and fun, communicating in a personal, open and direct way. Evolving from a focus on price to a focus on value, Oskar reaches the highest ARPU in the market, achieving a strong challenger position.

From Chief Commercial Officer to Chief Operations Officer, I am responsible for the fulfillment of the bid commitments. Finding the means to succeed at this monumental task creates the foundation of our organizational pride. From start-up to mature business, I focus on developing the Oskar brand, corporate culture, network and coverage, as well as a competitive range of products and services. The result: increased market share from 0 to 17% and revenue share to 20%, in just 5 years-and this in a market where mobile penetration surpasses 100% by the end of 2004