Carsten Dilling, CEO of Denmark’s TDC, became the latest top executive to call for consolidation in Europe’s highly competitive telecoms markets.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Dilling said the Nordic market is “mature and ready for consolidation”.

He added that TDC is “open minded” to assess relevant opportunities. “I definitely think we’ll see consolidation,” he declared.

His comments come in the wake of falling mobile data prices as Denmark’s four national operators battle it out to win customers.

“The shift from voice and messaging to data has picked up in pace and is likely to yield more pressure on network infrastructure spending, and put greater stress on cash flow margins down the road,” Fredrik Thoresen, an analyst at DNB ASA in Oslo, told Bloomberg. “The Danish market is ripe for consolidation.”

Dilling’s sentiments are shared by Rene Obermann, the outgoing chief executive of Deutsche Telekom.

“Now is the right time” for consolidation, he told Bloomberg last week, referring to the wider European market.

Obermann argued that Deutsche Telekom, despite being the second-largest carrier in Europe, was too small to compete internationally in the long term.

He added that Deutsche Telekom’s cooperation with Orange on purchasing and network sharing in some markets is “a start” and could act as a model for other European companies.

Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO of Telenor, has also argued in the past that the Swedish and Danish markets would benefit from mergers.

And before he left his CFO post at TeliaSonera, Per-Arne Blomquist said consolidation was “essential” for Europe.