TELECOMMUNICATIONS : COMMISSION TO SET TONE AS RESHUFFLING SPEEDS UP.

The year 2014 will see a reshuffling in the telecommunications sector. Various deals are being considered and the industry expects the European Commission to clarify its approach to mergers between operators, the price of which may be the disposal of frequencies. It is expected to make an announcement to that effect this week.

Just hours after the American operator AT&T announced, on 27 January, that it was dropping its plans to take over the UK's Vodafone, Liberty Global officialised its buy of Dutch cable operator Ziggo for 10 billion.

Is this evidence of the growing interest of firms from the opposite side of the Atlantic in the Old Continent's telecoms industry? It is that and more. According to several market analysts, it is a positive signal that this sector, short on investments for a number of years, is on track to emerging from the crisis due to less stringent regulatory pressure and consolidation opportunities to restore its competitiveness. JP Morgan notes that the sector's value rose by 13% in 2013. These hopes are based on a slight easing of the competition policy implemented by the Commission, pushed for by the association of European telecoms network operators (ETNO).

It remains to be seen whether the trend will be confirmed.

The EU executive gave its blessing last December to a merger in Germany between Vodafone and the country's largest cable operator, Kabel Deutchland, concluding that the parties had complementary activities (4715). On the other hand, in December 2012, it required Hutchison (Hong-Kong) to sell radio frequencies and offer its competitors in Austria better access to its network as a condition for its merger with O2, the Orange (France) subsidiary in this member state (4548), where the number of operators consequently dropped from four to three. Directorate-General Competition is known to be reluctant to endorse reductions in the number of competitors, considered a risk to competition.

SAME DEMAND

Apparently the Commission intends to reiterate a demand for such concessions to...