Hoettges sees the balance between infrastructure and service providers disappearing (Photo: Telekom)
Deutsche Telekom’s CEO doesn’t fear Google, but he closely watches any moves the California-based internet giant makes in the traditional telecommunications space.
“I’m not afraid of Google; I take Google seriously,” Tim Hoettges told Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung in a recent interview. “Especially when they muscle into our core business, like when they offer free video-telephony or instant-messaging services.”
Hoettges said the issue with such moves is that, in his view, Google only marginally participates in the costs of the networks that are needed to offer these services.
The Telekom chief said in the newspaper interview that he doesn’t expect Google to start building its own networks – at least not in Europe. “We’re better at networks,” he said. “Google knows as well that expanding networks is a complex and expensive business and they’re aware that here in Europe the competition is fierce.”
There used to be an equilibrium between service providers and companies that built the infrastructure for these services, Hoettges said. But today, he added, that balance is disappearing.
