Alone, the Nordic incumbents will not survive in an industry where revenue is increasingly generated from worldwide business communications services. These are exciting times for operators in the Nordic region. The incumbents are expanding their business service offerings, while selling stakes overseas and trying to strengthen their presence at home. Company managers hint and decline comments on merger talks.
Politicians reaffirm that state ownership can be reduced.
According to Swedish media sources, talks between Telia, Sonera, and TDC for the forming of a new Scandinavian heavyweight, Nordic Telecom, were already at the point of price negotiations before last weekend. This would be a very swift move, just after Telenor's negotiations to buy SBC Communications' stake in TDC broke down, allegedly because of the price SBC asked. The battle for a Nordic giant that could size up with the likes of Deutsche Telekom, British Telecommunications, France Telecom, and Telefonica of Spain, appears to center around the rivalry between Telia and Telenor, whereby the latter seems to be at the defensive - at least for the moment. The Swedish and Norwegian telco's have a heritage of two failed merger attempts, largely attributed to national hubris. For TDC to link up with Telia would have greater geographic synergies than to link up with Telenor.