France: Antitrust head speaks out against telecom merger, suggests network sharing instead
France’s head of the nation’s antitrust authority Bruno Lasserre was quoted in a newspaper this week, striking down a proposed merger between telecommunication giants. Iliad and Vivendi both announced a possible merger between their mobile sectors. In response, Lasserre said that he would not take sides on a mere hypothetical merger, but noted that he “warn[s] against such mergers. A return to three operators is not advisable.” Instead, Lasserre said, the telecom companies should share their networks to decrease costs for lower-income parts of France.
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