An Uneasy Relationship Between Telecom and Tech

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There is a love-hate relationship involving some of the world’s largest mobile carriers and tech giants like Facebook and Google. Both sides rely on each other to provide customers worldwide with high-speed Internet access and online services like music streaming and social networking. Yet as smartphones increasingly become the principal means by which people manage their everyday lives, the telecom and tech giants are jockeying to position themselves as consumers’ main conduit for using the Internet on mobile devices.

“There’s a lot of anxiety,” said Adrian Baschnonga, a telecom analyst at the consulting firm Ernst & Young in London. “No one wants to be overshadowed. Everyone is questioning their role in the industry.” “Mobile has become the heart of the Internet,” said Anne Bouverot, director general of the GSMA, an industry body that organizes the annual conference in Barcelona, known as Mobile World Congress. This shift has led to some uneasy relationships between telecom and tech companies.


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