MEDIA CUDGEL: Šolak's mechanism strikes again! They want SBB to become 4th mobile operator BY FORCE

United Group has activated its well-oiled mechanism to launch an attack against competing companies and Serbia's state institutions for the purposes of its latest enterprise

Evidently coordinated from a single centre with the help of hired experts and analysts, they have suddenly discovered – after two decades of mobile telephony – that an optimal model for the development of this market is having four rather than three operators, the latter being the case in all the countries of the region as well as most of Europe. At the same time, Serbia is accused of blacklisting SBB as an undesirable investor for no other reason than the government not selling the fourth mobile telephony licence to this company. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the government did not announce the sale of this licence and, therefore, could not have rejected any buyer in the first place, including Šolak's SBB.

Playing the victim

SBB's executive manager Milija Zeković played the opening move for the new media propaganda undertaking – aimed at protecting Dragan Šolak's business interests – during his guest appearance at a panel discussion organized on 20 October by the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade. Responding to an earlier statement by the Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić that three mobile network operators in Serbia are enough, Zeković said that it was "a clear message of the Government of Serbia that it doesn't want to allow SBB, which has invested nearly 900 million euros in Serbia so far, to compete for the fourth mobile network operator."

He proceeded to accuse Serbia's state institutions of "framing SBB as an undesirable investor" because of the alleged refusal on the part of the Serbian government to allow SBB to invest in mobile telephony although such a call for bids had never been issued.

"Only in Serbia does the government prevent SBB from investing and making a better market offer to people," SBB's executive manager concluded, accusing the government of jeopardizing the interests of the consumers.

Synchronized at all levels

Zeković's claims were soon complemented by TV N1 and TV Nova S, which launched a new economic theory of the fourth operator as the saviour of the consumers' wallets in the area of mobile telephony. The fourth operator-cum-saviour was none other than SBB, which shares its owner with the above television channels and which has gained quite a reputation by making hundreds of thousands of its users "happy" in the area of cable television by catching them in its net using lasso-style business practices, and not free competition and free consumer choice.

Despite their rich experience in curbing free competition – an activity that their owner had engaged in during what was a brutal primitive accumulation of capital – these television channels published the information that "Serbian economists agree that a fourth operator entering the mobile telephony market would enhance market competition."

Statements by these television channels' regular contributors – economist Ljubomir Madžar and foreign investments consultant Milan Kovačević – were provided to bolster this claim. As has been the case in the operation of Šolak's mechanism for eliminating competition, you could not hear a different opinion in these stories, and the conclusions were prepared in advance.

Anonymous experts featured in the investigation

The government was accused of wanting to bring the market back to the state of monopoly, and the former Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Šabić took this opportunity to launch another groundless attack against Telekom, as well as against the government, for "interventionism" in this line of business.

The pieces quickly fell into place, and recognizable traces of the mechanism for the protection of Dragan Šolak's business interests became visible. In order to mask somewhat the bias and the basic goal of protecting the Group owner's private interests, it was necessary to package the entire story as alleged concern over consumer interest. As trust in TV N1 and TV Nova S was lacking, this task fell to the Danas daily.

Following the clear guidelines for where to deploy the media cudgel, the Danas daily added to the mixture an unprofessional and biased story on the allegedly steep prices of mobile telephony in Serbia.

In a bizarrely skewed investigation, Danas obtained "opinions" from anonymous experts to the effect that the citizens of Serbia spend five percent of their earnings on mobile operator services. This, according to the conclusions of the author of the article, was far above the other countries of the region. Why mobile telephony was selected as a parameter, and not, for example, cable or internet provider expenses, was not made clear by the Danas editorial staff. However, the Serbian public was alerted to something purportedly being off in the mobile telephony market by alleged experts, who did not dare put their name to these opinions.

NIN in the role of a replacement media outlet

Although in the beginning many people were unclear as to what was behind this story, the answer came on the very same day – when the website Nova.rs picked up this article titled "SBB not allowed to be mobile operator, but 5% of our income goes to mobile bill".

Using Telekom management's decision to increase the prices of their services by 6.9 percent as a springboard, the media controlled by United Group now launched an open campaign against unwanted competition (Telenor) and state institutions for the sole reason that their owner's plans had failed. By so doing, they demonstrated yet again in practice that the point of their existence is not timely and objective reporting for the benefit of the public, but solely the fight for the private interests of the controversial Serbian euro-billionaire.

The NIN weekly devoted a full two pages of their latest issue to the op-ed of SBB's executive manager, thus confirming that the campaign is orchestrated from a single centre and that in order to execute it, Šolak's well-known mechanism for eliminating competition and unsuitable institution has been activated. In the article in question, Milija Zeković repeated everything that he had already said a month before at the panel discussion, while acknowledging that United Group had in fact sent to the Serbian government a letter of intent. The letter specified the Group's intention to enter the mobile telephony market while at the same time accusing the Government of being responsible for "the possibility of SBB entering the mobile telephony market being rejected in advance."

It is fact that the Government did not reply to SBB's offer for the simple reason that a call for bids for the fourth mobile telephony licence had not been issued in the first place. The fact that SBB wishes to buy something that is not on offer does not give its owner the right to blame anyone when that something isn't sold to him, least of all the state institutions and regulatory bodies.

This essentially PR piece by the executive manager of one of the biggest cable operators in the country was not flagged in the NIN issue as promotional, but as an op-ed analysis in the area of business, which constitutes a direct breach of professional norms and standards.

Campaign against Telenor

The balance resulting from having three operators has been proven in practice to be an optimal market structure throughout the region. The attempts by United Group to enter the mobile telephony market by force and so disrupt this balance comes as a result of a strategic response to Telenor entering the cable operator market. Soon after learning of Telekom and Telenor signing an agreement on renting cable infrastructure for the purposes of Telenor going into cable service provision, the media outlets which are part of Šolak's mechanism pounced on their new competitor and Telekom.

During a campaign that has lasted several months, which has included even some Euro-MPs and international organizations, the mechanism has attempted to present this business as criminal and illegal without any grounds whatsoever. Although Telekom and Telenor have been castigated for their alleged attempt to destroy SBB through their business collaboration, the media outlets controlled by the Group have deliberately passed over the fact that SBB itself had for years been entering into similar agreements on renting Serbia's state-owned operator's infrastructure. The old rule that Šolak's so-called independent media go by has been confirmed yet again – what their boss is allowed to do definitely isn't allowed for other market players.

Kurir.rs / Kurir Editorial Staff

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