Two mobile giants, namely Deutsche Telekom and France Télecom, announced they have plans to merge their mobile operations in Britain.
At this moment, O2 and Vodafone are the market leaders in the mobile sector in Britain. But with this merger, Deutsche Telekom and France Télecom will become the number one in Britain. They will have a 37 % market share.
It is difficult to survive for operators in the very concentrated European mobile industry. Operators are currently selling below cost to compete with the other operators. Orange is even giving away netbook computers to win customers. Probably, more mergers will follow in the future because it is the best way to consolidate a position.
In Belgium, I think we have the same problem. A lot of operators create a crowded mobile market which makes it almost impossible for new operators to survive. For some of those starters, the only way to save themselves is a merger.
Not long ago, I read an article about making phone calls in Belgium. It taught me that Belgium is the most expensive country in the world to make phone calls. Selling below cost is a phenomenon they know in Britain, but apparently not in Belgium.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/business/global/09mobile.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=merger&st=cse
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You're right Ben, in Belgium we're in the exact same situation. But I think the whole point of this, is that the normal citizin will again be the victim. Perhaps, as a marktleader, they will become better and stronger and afterwards there is the profit seeking and that always means -> let the people pay more! And especially, decept the people.
I have already had such a situation with Telenet. They claimed that something was for free and then afterwards we had do had to pay and if you ask why, they always have a reason for it.
So I think it is dangerous if such a large party is overruling the market, because people are so unlearned and never know what is behind the beautiful words of the big operators!
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