[2008.06.07] International roaming 电信业的国际漫游

Telecoms
电信业
International roaming
国际漫游

Jun 5th 2008
From Economist.com
2008年6月5日
《经济学人》网站

Why have mobile-phone operators taken so long to tie up across borders?
为何移动电话运营商花费了如此长的时间来加紧跨越国界的联系呢？

FOR a business that has done so much to make people feel closer together mobile-phone operators have been wary about extending the hand of friendship across borders. But as a new round of consolidation kicks off in Europe, America and elsewhere it seems that the world is getting smaller for the mobile-phone giants.
做为一个主要是让人们感觉彼此之间的联系更加紧密的生意，移动电话运营商非常谨慎地对待延长“友谊之手”跨越国界。但是随着新一轮的合并在欧洲，美国和其它地方的开始，对于那些移动巨头来说，世界变的更小了。

France Telecom admitted on Thursday June 5th that it had begun discussion with TeliaSonera about a long-anticipated takeover offer for the Swedish firm, in a deal worth some SKr252 billion ($42 billion). The same day on the other side of the Atlantic, Verizon Wireless agreed to acquire Alltel, a regional operator, in a $27 billion deal that would create America’s largest mobile company.
法国电信在6月5日星期四承认开始与瑞典的桑内拉电信集团就有关一项期待已 久的对于这家瑞典公司的收购意向展开讨论。这笔交易价值2520亿瑞典克朗（420亿美元）。在同一天的大西洋另一端，Verizon Wireless同意收购一家地区性的运营商Alltel。这笔270亿美元的交易将造就美国最大的移动公司。

This deal and potential tie-up are the latest of a flurry of activity among the world’s big mobile operators. In developed markets the prospects for growth are poor—in many countries there are more mobile phones than people. So bulking up makes sense: with greater size comes the opportunity to cut costs and reap other rewards that come with economies of scale. And opportunities abound. In Europe mobile-telecoms markets are highly fragmented and ripe for more consolidation. Deutsche Telekom made its own move across borders last month with the acquisition of a 25% stake and control of the management of OTE, a Greek operator.
这笔交易已经潜在的合并交易是世界大型移动运营商当中最近的热点。在发达市场增长的前景乏力——在许多国家移动电 话比人还多。所以合并是合情合理的：拥有更大的规模可以有机会减少成本并获得规模效益。机会大量存在。欧洲移动通信市场是高度零散而且合并的时机已经成 熟。德意志电信通过收购25%的希腊运营商OTE的股份并获得经营权使得自己走出国门。

France Telecom cannot yet celebrate its foray abroad, which, if successful, would create Europe’s biggest mobile-phone company by revenue, and boast 237m customers in 30 countries. The firm is particularly enticing because along with its more mature operations in the Nordic region come faster growing businesses in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The board of its Swedish target has rejected the informal offer of cash and shares as too low, despite the bid representing a big premium on the company’s share price before the French firm’s interest became apparent in April.
法国电信还未到庆贺其在国外“突袭”成果的时候。如果这次“突袭”成功，将造就——以收入规模来衡量——欧洲最大的移动电话运营商，拥有遍布30个国家的 2.37亿客户。这个公司特别吸引人，因为它在北欧地区有成熟的运作而且东欧和中亚有着快速增长的市场。尽管出价比法国公司4月份流露出收购意向前该公司 的股价有很大溢价，瑞典的董事会还是由于出价偏低拒绝了这笔现金加股份的非正式收购意向。

Even if that deal falls through there are plenty of other possible tie-ups in the offing. Spain’s Telefonica and Britain’s Vodafone are both thought by some analysts to be on the hunt for acquisitions and smaller firms in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland. Vodafone may bid to extend its stake in Vodacom, a South African operator. A handful of other countries could make tempting targets.
如果这笔交易失败，那么还有另外的收购合并交易发生。一些分析师认为西班牙电信和英国的沃达丰公司都在比利时，荷兰，葡萄牙，瑞士物色较小规模的公司做为收购对象。沃达丰可能会购入一家南非运营商Vodacom的股份。一大堆其它国家的公司都会成为诱人的收购目标。

More deals are in the works elsewhere. Late last month India’s Reliance Communications said that it was in talks with South Africa’s MTN about a deal that would forge a firm valued at over $60 billion with a presence in India, Africa and the Middle East and with over 114m subscribers. Reliance’s move came shortly after MTN broke off talks with Bharti Airtel, an Indian rival to Reliance, when structuring a deal between the two proved too complicated.
更多的在其他地方的交易也在计划中。上个月晚些时 候，印度的Reliance Communications表示它正与南非的MTN在商讨一笔交易，这笔交易会造就价值超过600亿，并且在印度，非洲和中东拥有1.14亿用户的公 司。在MTN与Bharti Airtel谈判破裂后不久，Reliance就马上与其进行谈判。Bharti Airtel是Reliance的一家印度竞争对手，Bharti Airtel与MTN的交易当时被证明太复杂了。

The current clamour to do deals is driven by the belief that bigger is better. And cross border tie-ups are also becoming more acceptable to regulators. Previously cross-border collaboration between mobile operators was accepted, but that was usually as far as it went.
现在合并交易的呼声是受“大即是好”的信念驱使的。而且跨境交易也越来越被监管者所接受。此前移动运营商的跨境协作可以被接受,但是接受度也就仅限于协作。

As with other businesses such as airlines that are reckoned to be strategic by governments, alliances were tolerated by regulators while full mergers were blocked. But as is happening in other businesses such as energy, governments in Europe and elsewhere are becoming less inclined to use the security concerns they used to cite to prevent certain types businesses from coming together across borders. It has become apparent that preventing foreign energy companies from gaining access to national markets has little bearing on energy security. By the same token allowing mobile operators to fall to foreign predators is unlikely to compromise national security. So even if some the current set of proposed deals among mobile-phone operators fails to come to fruition it still looks likely that a round of consolidation is on the way.
如同其它行业比如航空业会被政府看作国家战略意义上的产业，结盟可以被监管者容忍，但是完全合并会被阻止。但是在其它行业 比如能源，欧洲和其它地区的政府变的比以往更少的倾向于引用国家安全考虑来阻止某些类型的跨境合并。阻止外国公司进入国内能源市场显然很少影响到国家能源安全。同样地，允许国内移动电话运营商与国外运营商合并也不会危害到国家安全。所以即使有些现在移动运营商合并的交易未能达成，新一轮的合并显然已经开始了。译者：rushor  http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11886&extra=page%3D1