The effects of deregulation in the European telecoms market, which came into effect across most of Europe on January 1, will take between six months and a year to before users see any significant drop in telecom costs. According to analysts for Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, deregulation will start to bite in 1999, when the prices of phone calls will plummet, with domestic long distance calls halving in price, and the cost of international European calls dropping by more than 70%. Analysts at the Meta Group say that well-funded competitors, such as Cegetel in France and o.tel.o and Viag in Germany, are emerging to break European telecom monopolist strongholds. The result is that users will be able to negotiate 10%-25% discounts in telecom contracts, during 1998.
