By 2025, European telecom companies boosted their investments in digital infrastructure projects, with the Serbian media market undergoing major transformation, driven by Czech PPF Group and Emirates Telecommunications Group, which formed e&PPF Telecom.
The acquisition ended the “cable war,” and put state-owned Telekom at the forefront of the European telecom market. The newly formed e&PPF Telecom gained key United Group assets, reshaping the media landscape. The move is alarming over potential monopolistic behavior and concentration of power in the European telecom market.
Even though e&PPF Telecom guaranteed that big media such as N1 and Nova S will remain the same, there remains a concern that there will be editorial pressure over the networks in the future.
Long-time researcher Rade Veljanovski said he was worried about how the loss of N1, and Nova S would be a “darker media era” for Serbia, which already has a small number of diverse media to start with. He was concerned that Telekom’s control would bring greater control over editorial policies and a limiting of the diversity of media voices in the country.
European Telecom Sector
At the same time, the telecommunication market in the UK is likewise transforming radically. As one that holds the top telecom companies in Europe, the UK telecommunication market is extremely competitive with ongoing market concentration. The UK telecommunication market claims an enormous number of SMEs that serve business and government segments such as defense and national security.
A key trend is the rise of low-cost operators, gaining brand strength and challenging the established telecom operators in Europe. In the UK telecommunication sector, revenue is projected to grow from $37.55 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.59%, reaching $46.99 billion by 2030.
Where brand power comes together between conventional brands and low-cost brands, native champions are becoming well known to consumers as their operators’ equivalents. Overall, European telecom companies are experiencing the same wave. The price sensitivity and customer churn have risen, resulting in power shifts to low-cost operators.
The biggest telecom companies in Europe and the UK are evolving into a mix of traditional telecom operaters and the low-cost entry operators, making the market more competitive where the customers receive more options but also suffer from coping with market fragmentation.
Final Thoughts
The UK remains Europe’s largest telecommunications market, with Germany, France, and Italy following close behind. While the UK and European telecom companies share partnership and the rise of low-cost operators, each is subject to its own dynamics. The local economic context, regulatory environments, and consumers’ behavior drives how such developments function.
The Serbian e&PPF Telecom merger brought up the problem of media diversity, showing the broader problems linked to monopolistic practices in telecom and media sectors. While European telecom regulation tries to allow competition, market domination continues to be alarming for consumers as well as for the market about long-term implications of monopolistic practices. Will the result lead to stifling innovation and concentrated power?
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