Apple and Google are encroaching on the telecom industry's turf in their crusades to dominate content services, and should not be allowed to succeed in their goals, European telcos have warned.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress, Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe griped that content providers such as Google are “invading our turf,” – a big problem in a market that’s projected to be worth $40 billion (€29.5 billion) by 2014.
Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta called for the industry to collectively negotiate a new deal with content providers whereby they would share some of these proceeds, Bloomberg reports.
He said national regulators should allow operators to try to recover some of the costs of network investment.
Vodafone chief Vittorio Colao said the industry needs to rethink its approach to content delivery, to help avoid “dominance of any step of the value chain.”
Operators should drop the 'walled garden' approach and embrace the concept of open content platforms, he said.