Ten years of Blair and UK Telecoms

Rating: beauty contest, 3G, more competition

by Bena Roberts

Depending on who you are ten years of Blair leadership in the UK might or might not have impacted your life. As I watched Blair’s resignation speech last night; I wondered what impact Blair had on the British telecoms market.

Off the top of my head – I expect that Cable & Wireless is happy about the end of Blair. Telecoms competition has increased immensely and the mobile environment is more competitive than ever. Prices have decreased in the fixed space and mobile is definitely cheaper – but mobile calling still isn’t cheap. One thing is for sure. The government certainly made its fair share of capital gain from the 3G Beauty Contest. When I look back now – what a farce that was.

The hype around 3G made the prices in the UK and across Europe soar.
BT has survived the Blair years and remains a determined incumbent but liberalisation and MVNOs haven’t had too much of an impact from the consumer perspective.