Sonofon, Denmark's second biggest mobile operator, is joining Starmap, an alliance of Europe's smaller mobile telcos.

Starmap used to be called the mmO2 Mobile Alliance, and consists of mm02 in the UK, Ireland and Germany, Amena of Spain, One in Austria, Pannon GSM of Hungary, Switzerland's Sunrise, Telenor Mobil Norway and Wind of Italy.

These allies are trying to stitch together a seamless roaming experience which will keep business customers tied to partner networks when travelling overseas. This pitches Starmap against Vodafone, which has coverage pretty much everywhere off its own bat, and Freemove, an alliance of four big operators: Orange, T-Mobile, Telefónica and TIM, announced Monday.

Freemove said it is in discussions with other operators about joining, but Sonofon's decision to plump for Starmap, shows that smaller players may prefer to play with companies of their own size. ®

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