As regulators seemingly around the world wrestled the life out of the Sprint-WorldCom merger last week and everyone and their brother speculated about who now might partner with whom as a result, I couldn’t keep my mind off the contradictory stage being set across Europe for next-generation licensing.
Anti-competitive! The cries rang out to Sprint-WorldCom as organizations and government bodies denounced the union between the two top carriers. Janet Reno stated, “If this merger were to go through, consumers and businesses would pay the price.”
That is her job-to help maintain a fair playing field for consumers and businesses.
Meanwhile, European governments are preparing for auctions, mouths watering, hands wringing and eyes seeing green. Hoping to find their own gold mines, France and Italy already have modified their original beauty-pageant style license awards to reap profits more in line with the bountiful U.K. UMTS auction of this spring. With most European 3G licensing scheduled to take place throughout the rest of the year, it is feared other countries will also jump on the auction bandwagon.
“Carriers, competition and consumers be damned! There are billions of dollars at stake!”
Who is watching? Who will cry foul and put a stop to this? Where is the EU?
With the C-block fiasco still being sorted out in U.S. courts and at the FCC years later, has no one learned anything? Can governments get past their greed for a moment and back to their responsibilities-back to ensuring the welfare of consumers and businesses? Back to establishing an environment where competition will flourish and new technologies will prosper?
The carriers will lose out first, and the consumers will follow. The carriers always have the option to not participate in these auctions at all, but then they are out of the game before it starts. If carriers join in the bidding frenzy and ultimately secure licenses, the license costs will need to be passed on to the consumer through hefty charges for 3G services. Will the consumer pay? Will the carrier survive? It is not a very optimistic business model. The promise of 3G is suddenly not so promising.
Will it then be worth it to the governments that so happily lined their pockets when they try to pick up the pieces of a shattered telecommunications industry?
Hello out there big government … Why don’t you stop shaking your finger at Sprint and WorldCom for just a minute and look in the mirror?
