Mobile web behind France Telecom’s interest in TeliaSonera

Rating: More about mobile surfers than African subscribers

It seems that reports which first surfaced in Le Figaro that France Telecom is looking to acquire TeliaSonera are true. What other observers may have got wrong is the motivation behind the move.
Some suggest it is TeliaSonera’s interests in emerging markets. I think it has more to do with Google.

TeliaSonera is one of the most innovative operators there is. Which is hardly much of  a co-incidence given that the operator covers Nokia’s home market in Finland and Ericsson’s home market in Sweden. European mobile operators are well aware that the next battleground will take place over the mobile Internet. They don’t want to risk a re-run of the fiasco that was WAP.

So where is the main competition going to come from? Easy – the infamous web 2.0 players and Google in particular. Hence I’d argue that a tie up with TeliaSonera wouldn’t only just make France Telecom Europe’s third largest operator ahead of Deutsche Telekom. It would also acquire the skills and the clout to stand up to Web 2.0 companies.
And I’m cheating here because Gervais Pellissier, CFO with France Telecom actually confirmed my suspicions. He told the FT that, “To compete with actors such as Google, it is better to have many subscribers in countries that use the internet than simply have lots of subscribers in Africa or other developing markets, which are not yet in that business.”
That makes sense because it’s easier to provide mobile internet services if you already have subscribers who showing willingness to consume such services.
As M:Metrics pointed out the other day, the biggest consumers of mobile media at the moment are in the USA. However, those fondest of using the mobile Net at present are also Apple iPhone users. It’s no co-incidence, therefore, that France Telecom through Orange just so happens to have concluded the exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone in France.
Gaining experience from the advanced Nordic markets would certainly help France Telecom. Which probably explains why the rumours are that the company might try for Telenor if its plans for TeliaSonera are thwarted. Emerging markets – No. Mobile internet experience – Yes.

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