The GSM Association is claiming that Europe’s mobile industry is cutting back spending on new networks and services as a growing regulatory burden from the European Union puts profitability under pressure.
The European Commission, however, asserted that mobile operators are making excessive profits and has imposed retail price caps on the industry.

This is refuted by the GSMA – using data from management consultancy AT Kearney – which argues that the European mobile industry’s return on capital employed (ROCE) was just 9 per cent in 2006 compared with more than 20 per cent in software, pharmaceuticals and several other sectors.
In its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the voice roaming regulation, the GSMA is warning that European mobile operators, on average, are only just covering their weighted cost of capital and some of them are making an economic loss.