Telecoms face EU ‘war of attrition’

The relationship between European Union regulators and the region’s largest telecoms groups was already strained, but tension reached new levels this week with the top competition body admitting it is concerned that meetings between the five powerful operators could lead to collusion.

Brussels has demanded further information about meetings, dubbed “E5”, held since 2010 between top executives at Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and the UK-based wireless group Vodafone. Regardless of whether or not there is any evidence of collusion at the meetings – which were openly held and in the presence of a lawyer – industry insiders are concerned that the two parties’ “war of attrition” threatens to undermine plans to roll out high-speed next-generation mobile and fixed-line networks across Europe.