Mobile phone
Florida teenager Tariq Khdeir, 15, is seen on a mobile phone after his arrival from Israel at Tampa airport, Florida July 16, 2014. Khdeir was released from house arrest after Israeli police detained him during protests against the abduction and killing of his cousin, Mohammed Abu Khudair, 16, in Jerusalem, in a suspected revenge attack for the kidnap and slayings of three Israeli teens last month. Israeli police were investigating complaints that Khdeir, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, was beaten while being taken into custody. REUTERS/Scott Audette (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST)

French telco giant Orange is considering a buy-out of Spanish telcos Jazztel and Yoigo if ever these two firms would be placed on the block, said Orange CEO Federico Colom.

TellSonera, the owner of Yoigo, abandoned its plan to sell the firm in April 2013 because of offers that were below expectations. The Swedish firm owns a 76 percent stake in Yoigo and hired in mid-2012 Deutsche Bank to handle the sale for it to leave non-core market and instead concentrate on Nordic and central Asian markets.

But in July 2014, TellSonera said it was still open to divesting its stake in Yoigo, Spain's smallest telco, due to the fierce competition in the industry and strong consolidation trends that placed pressure on mobile-only enterprises.

Worldmobilelive also noted that it makes sense for the second-biggest telco in France to buy Jazztell so it could match competitor Telefonica's and Vodafone's fixed-network credentials. When Vodafone purchased Ono, a cable operator, in the early part of 2014, it was able to offer quadplay.

Also at the 28 Encuentro de las Telecomunicaciones summit, Colom said that while consolidation has started in Spain's telco market, it still has a long way to go. He disagreed with Telefonica's incorporation of TV content in all of its offerings, describing the premium pay-TV-offers in the market as having a polluting effect.

Colom blames the situation on the dominance of Telefonica in the broadband market. He urged the country's regulator to investigate Telefonica and also Movistar TV which has an exclusive content offer to subscribers because he believes it damages competition.

Buy-outs and consolidations strengthen the competitive advantage of companies as firms battle it out for a larger share of the telco market in anticipation of growing demand for data as device makers release more gadgets in the market capable of accessing the Internet. The emergence of smartphone and tablets in the past few years had changed dramatically the use of mobile phones identified before with only voice calls and text messaging functions.

To meet the higher demand for data, telcos would need not only to consolidate or buy competitors but also expand its infrastructure facilities.