Regulations by governing entities are a dual-edged sword. While in some cases, they protect the consumer from illegitimate companies, phony goods and bad service, they also serve to limit innovation and creativity. In Europe, there are many regulations in regards to the mobile infrastructure, and Timotheus Hottges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, says that in order to benefit from the mass connectivity of the world that the current mobile infrastructure has given us, Europe needs to change their regulations. He called out to the continent as a whole, as well as to individual countries to reach a new type of regulation arrangement, as well as to harmonize the data protection policies around Europe. Keep in mind, in Europe there are close to 200 major mobile carriers as opposed to the four major ones we have here in the States.
Hottges in a realist in that he knows that operators can only make minimal contributions to this effort. As he puts it, “Telecom operators don’t have the DNA to develop these kinds of applications. In this new world we build the network, but the service is built by someone else. We have to share monetisation.” He also realizes that OTT players are imperative to make it clear to all exactly how information is being used, and just how new business models can be built off that kind of customer data.
This story is kind of intricate, but basically what the head of Deutsche Telekom is saying is that in order for the European markets to stay competitive on a global scale and to be just overall more effective on the home front, there needs to be a drastic change in how the European governments regulate the mobile industry. As to the implications of this, they will remain to be seen. Hopefully, we do not see a forced union of their 200+ carriers into a group of say 4 or 5 competitors, but maybe there could be some partnerships formed in order to standardize more things. The European market is a major target for phone sales and app development, so hopefully things will go all right for them in the end. What do you think? Any opinions or thoughts? Let us know down below!