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Deutsche Telekom pavilion at the World Congress of Mobile in Barcelona, Spain.
Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Gets the image
Barcelona – Telecommunications firms in Europe are increasing calls for greater consolidation of the industry to help the region compete more effectively with superpowers such as the US and China, by key technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
Last week, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) exhibition in Barcelona, the heads of several telecommunications firms called for regulators to facilitate their combination with other enterprises and reduce the total number of carriers operating across the continent.
Currently, there are many Telco players working in several EU countries and members who are not in the EU, such as the UK, however, Telco’s chiefs said CNBC that the situation is impossible because they cannot compete effectively when it comes to the price and quality of the network.
“When we are going to invest in technology in deep know-how and bring dramatic changes, positive dramatic changes in Europe-like and other major technology companies that have made in the US, or we see today in China-Nn a scale,”-Mark Murtra, CEO of Spanish Giguits TelefonicaIn an interview, she talked about Karen CNBC.
“In order to be able to get scale, we need to unite the fragmented market as a telecommunications market in Europe,” Muratro added. “And for that we need a regulation that allows us to consolidate. So, what we ask is: please dilute us. Let’s get the scale. Let’s invest in technology and lead to productive changes.”
Christel Heideman, CEO of French Carrier OrangeHe said that while some mega-calf activity is starting to gather in Europe, it is necessary to make more to guarantee the continent’s competitiveness on the world stage.
Last year, Orange concluded a deal to unite its Spanish operations with a local Masmovil mobile network. Meanwhile, most recently, the competition of the UK and the authorization of marketsTY approved a merger of £ 15 billion ($ 19 billion) between telecommunications firms Vodafone And three in the UK, provided certain conditions.
“We actively ruled the consolidation in Europe,” said heydemann orange heydemann CNBC. “We see that everything is changing now. There is still a lot of hope.”
However, she added: “I think in Europe there is a lot of pressure from the business environment to make our political leaders to change. But in fact it has not changed yet.”
During a fiery speech on Monday, the CEO of German Telco Deutsche TelekomTim Hurts said other Telco markets such as the US and India, shortened in size with only a few players.
In the US industry Telco prevails three largest mobile network operators, Verizon. AT&T and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has most Deutsche Telekom.
A schedule comparing the cost of T-Mobile shares, the largest in America in America Market Cap, and in Germany Deutsche Telekom and Orange France.
“We need competition policy reform,” Hyots said on stage at MWC. “We need to allow our activity to consolidate.”
“There is no reason that each market should work with three -time operators,” he added. “We need to create a European single market … Because when we can’t raise consumer prices when we cannot charge the players, we need to get effectiveness from the scale we created.”
“Over-top” refers to media platforms such as Netflix which deliver content over the Internet bypassing traditional cable networks.
Europe’s competitiveness in focus
From AI to achievements to 5G next generation networks, telecommunications companies in Europe invest large funds in new technologies, trying to go beyond the outdated layout model that allows you to connect to the Internet Business Model, which earned them a clumsy term “silent pipes”.
However, this expensive modernization endeavor occurred in tandem with sluggish revenue growth and the inability to monetize its networks to the same extent as the technological giants that arise with the occurrence of mobile applications, and recently, generative tools AI.
In MWC, many mobile network operators talked about using the II to improve the quality of the network, better serve their customers and get market share.
However, chiefs in Europe say they can speed up their digital transformation travel when they are allowed to combine with other major multinational players.
“Now this true emphasis is over European competitiveness,” said Luke Keho, an industry analyst at Europe at the Ookla network reconnaissance company, CNBC said on MWC’s sidelines last week. “There is a goal of mobilizing the policy to improve telecommunications networks.”
In January, the European Commission, the executive part of the European Union, issued the so -called “competitiveness” of EU legislators.
The document requires, among other things, “revised recommendations for the merger assessment, in order for innovation, sustainability and intensity of competition investment in certain strategic sectors give sufficient weight in light of the acute needs of the European economy.”
Meanwhile, last year the former President of the European Central Bank Mario Dragi released A A long -awaited report that called for radical reforms in the EU Through a new industrial strategy to ensure its competitiveness.
It also requires a new digital networks law that would like to improve the incentives for Telcos to create mobile networks, reducing requirements, improving communications for end users and coordinating EU policy throughout the network spectrum or radio frequency range used for wireless communication.
“The overall topic and music of the mood certainly reduce the EX-Ante regulations and contribute to what they will call a more competitive environment that is an environment that promotes consolidation,” Kehoe Ookla CNBC said. “Moving forward, I think there will be more consolidation.”
However, Telco Industry has some way to go for transformation cross -border mergers and absorptions, Keho added.
For many Telco analysts, industry analysts are not new.
“European Telco leaders have never been shy about calling for consolidation and convenience to growth,” said Nik Willetts, CEO of TM Telco Industry TM, CNBC. “But adjusting is just one piece of puzzle.”
“In the last 12 months, we have seen a new energy from our members in Europe to get a great task to convert ourselves: simplification, modernization and automation of our activities and hereditary technologies.”
“This will quickly adapt to new needs of customers and market realities, whether it is the creation of new partnerships, transferred M&A or delay of complex enterprises – all the trends we expect to reach new heights over the next 24 months,” he added.
