Brussels, 14/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has requested further information from five big European telecoms companies (collectively known as E5, namely France Télecom, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Vodafone) and industry umbrella group GSMA, in a bid to determine whether meetings of the E5 company bosses since 2010 to discuss strategy and technical cooperation amount to antitrust measures. According to Wednesday's Financial Times, the request for information is the first stage in an antitrust investigation.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said that the request for information is connected with the way that standardisation of mobile communication services is being introduced, and did not open any formal investigation, not reflecting the Commission's concerns about competition. The director general of France Télécom, the man behind the meetings, said that the businessmen had discussed standardisation of technology, whether to set up a joint sales website for the sale of mobile device software to compete with Apple and Google, and how to get Apple and Google to pay some of the cost of setting up networks. (FG/transl.fl)