The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of multimarket contact on profitability in the context of the European mobile communications industry. Our hypothesis proposes a U-shaped relationship between the average number of multimarket contacts of a firm with its rivals and its profitability. The results derived from this paper support the above-mentioned hypothesis and have been validated in 19 European markets and 66 mobile operators. This allows a certain degree of generalization of our results.

Key words: multimarket contact, profitability, European mobile communications industry.
JEL Classification: M13, L96.