Some telecoms operators are coming around to the idea of sharing the burden of network rollout, while others still have more of a "mine!" approach to infrastructure.
This week it became increasingly clear that differentiating based on network assets is important for some operators, but not others.
Polkomtel announced its decision to cease active bidding in Poland’s 800 MHz spectrum auction, insisting that the market would benefit from having a single LTE network – or two at most – that all operators could share.
The operator’s decision was at least in part influenced by fears that other players, the local units of Orange and T-Mobile in particular, could pool their spectrum resources in order to gain an advantage in the LTE market. As such, it has made it known that it is keen to cooperate with others on LTE rollout.
Its ideal scenario would doubtless be akin to that in Mexico, where the government coordinating the build-out of a US$10 billion wholesale shared mobile network.
On Wednesday the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) published a preliminary timeline for the project and invited expressions of interest from any player keen to take part. Interested parties have until 22 April to make their submissions. The comms ministry aims to publish an RFP by late September or early October.
Meanwhile, there were fresh rumours this week of mobile consolidation in Italy, where network operators Wind and 3 Italia are in advanced talks, according to unnamed sources quoted by the Financial Times.
Such a tie up would be music to the ears of Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano, who recently talked up the benefits of having three strong operators in the market, all investing in their networks, even if that means less of a differentiating edge for his own company.
But elsewhere network assets are still a differentiator for some.
On Tuesday, Vodafone announced plans to launch voice over LTE (VoLTE) and WiFi calling services this summer. No sooner had it made the announcement than competitor EE pointed out that it will launch voice over WiFi as soon as 7 April.
So clearly, while some operators are able to play nicely with each other, there will always be those that prefer to have the sand pit all to themselves.
