Alcatel-Lucent chairman Philippe Camus said Europe needs to drop its anti-merger position and instead push telecommunications companies to share spending and expertise in research and networks. The former head of EADS said the aerospace industry should serve as a model on how to promote cooperation. "Europe needs to do more to promote and less to repress," Camus said in an interview with Bloomberg. "It's not about pouring money in, it's about allowing and encouraging companies to adopt common standards, co-invest in research and develop products together." His comments echo an earlier report that French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg discussed with France Telecom the possible advantages of a merger with Deutsche Telekom. According to Camus, Europe has fallen at least two years behind the US in deploying infrastructure such as fibre and 4G networks. "The US market has consolidated, while Europe has become the Tower of Babel," Camus said. "We're late on 4G and we've got no project in fiber. That's a handicap, especially in a bad macroeconomic context."
