Groups’ alarm at Apple and Google

The skirmishes between European telecoms groups and Apple and Google are intensifying. They point to a profound issue for the European groups: can they secure a bigger chunk of the profit generated from the Internet? The groups are casting around for new sources of revenue as they spend billions of euros on beefing up their fixed-line and mobile networks to cope with the rapidly growing volume of bandwidth-hungry video on their infrastructure. Amid this hunt for revenue, the European groups view Apple and Google with increasing alarm. The level of concern is demonstrated by the fact that Vodafone, Telefónica, Telecom Italia, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have set up a group to monitor the mobile phone operating system market for possible unfair practices.