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TELECOM

Tele 2 doubles profits

Swedish mobile telecoms operator Tele 2 posted a pre-tax first quarter profit on Wednesday of 1.588 billion kronor ($220 million), beating market expectations.

Published: 21 April 2010 17:50 CEST

The firm recorded a 755 million kronor profit for the same period last year. Analysts consulted by news agency Reuters expected Wednesday’s profit result to come in at 1.313 billion kronor.

“At Tele2 we are proud but never satisfied, and our Q1 2010 interim results are proof that hard work pays off. EBITDA grew by 5 percent to 2.358 billion, resulting in a strong margin of 25 percent,” said CEO Lars Nilsson in a statement.

Net sales for the quarter totalled 9.535 billion kronor, below analyst projections of 9.698 billion kronor.

Tele 2 said it had added 949,000 customers in Russia over the quarter, while mobile revenue in the Nordic grew by 3 percent.

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TELECOM

EU Commissioner ‘to ban roaming fees by 2017’

European Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said on Monday that he wants to abolish roaming fees for mobile phone users within the EU by 2017.

Published: 23 June 2015 09:01 CEST
EU Commissioner 'to ban roaming fees by 2017'
No more worrying about how much texting from the beach costs? Photo: DPA

“From the second quarter of 2017, roaming fees in the EU will probably fall away,” the former minister-president of Baden-Württemberg told journalists in Bonn.

“The European Commission, the governments of the 28 member states and the European Parliament (EP) will probably agree on it very soon.”

Oettinger's announcement comes just over a month after the European Commission dropped plans to abolish roaming charges from 2016 after objections from telecoms companies in smaller member states.

But a new compromise had to be reached after consumers' organizations and the EP protested vociferously.

“If the end of roaming comes in 2017, companies have a year longer compared with the old plans to conform to the new rules,” Oettinger said.

“And consumers will see yet more that they profit from the single market in telecoms. Roaming fees have already sunk a great deal.”

Wave of mergers expected

Oettinger believes that the EU must consolidate its telecoms market – pointing to the 280 telecoms companies across Europe compared with four in the US.

“To become more competitive and consolidate their networks, many more companies will merge in the coming years.

“That should lead to the European telecoms industry playing a bigger role on the global stage. But competition has to be assured.”

The Commissioner hopes to arrange the European telecoms market such that, for example, people could use a self-driving car – “an important market for Germany's car manufacturers” – to travel seamlessly from one country to another.

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