The consolidation of the independent telecoms sector has not yet begun although black clouds are already settling over it. It is more or less certain that consolidation will occur, although there are many hurdles needing to be crossed first.
Kjell-Ove Blom, acting MD of Netia is convinced that consolidation is only a matter of time. He is unable to put a time frame on the process but come it will.
Netia, Telefonia Dialog and El Net are all waiting for a new owner to come along and snap them up. Netia is about to be taken by its creditors, the second is in the end game of talks with an investor and the third is about to be acquired by a consortium of BRE Bank and Eastbridge.
The atmosphere of waiting for a new owner is not condusive to consolidation plans. This is despite comments from the likes of BRE Bank saying that consolidation is unavoidable come what may.
However past experience has been unkind. Netia was talking to Elektrim for several years about the acquisition of El-Net and these talks got nowhere. Kjell-Ove Blom points out that potential partners are unwilling to open up their books.
The biggest problem could be with Polkomtel, operator of the Plus GSM network and the company that could end up funding the merger. The foreign shareholders of the company such as the British Vodafone are opposed to any state backed merger.