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Mobile firms take swipe at Apple(Guardian (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) European mobile companies have vowed to "break the monopolies" enjoyed by Google and Apple in smartphones and urged regulators to allow consolidation among rival operators. Hit by economic recession and the cost of subsidising expensive handsets, networks want to limit mobile firms to two or three players per country. At the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona yesterday, UK-based Vodafone, Spain's Telefonica and Telecom Italia called for a single market with common rules across Europe, lower tax and the granting of spectrum licences in perpetuity, as in China and the US. Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Colao, also urged regulators to "let consolidation happen" and only step in "if there is market failure". Photograph: Pau Barrena/Demotix/Corbis (c) 2013 Guardian Newspapers Limited. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] |