European Mobile Alliances: One Falling Apart, One Coming Together

Alliances are hard work. Back in April, lots of news was made when four European carriers (Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Italia Mobile, Orange and T-Mobile) agreed to team up to compete against the growing international powerhouse of Vodafone. Orange was the last one to join in on the alliance and it sounds like there's a bit of a tiff with T-Mobile over who gets to control the alliance in the UK where both have a presence - and (more importantly) who gets to collect the money. Of course, this infighting happens just as mmO2 has come up with their own alliance plans along with a bunch of other European wireless carriers. Setting up a simple system to let mobile phone users in Europe roam makes a lot of sense - so, it's really too bad that T-Mobile and Orange feel the need to fight over such things, rather than work out a reasonable middle ground.