Does it still pay to be a šmejd?

Normally, when two people fight, as the Czech saying goes, the third person laughs, but it's not working out that way for the "miscreant" telecoms operators. The dispute between Industry Min. Jan Mládek and Finance Min. Andrej Babiš over who is responsible for the high data rates and one-sided commercial terms imposed by the operators is raising awareness that a solution needs to be found. The more those two bicker about who dropped the ball, the farther O2 CR's shares fall. Even PM Bohuslav Sobotka, who stood firmly by PPF on the highway-toll issue, has now jumped into the fray, demanding that something be done about the "untenable" situation. PPF is gaining the reputation of being the "biggest miscreant" and of teaching even the well-schooled giants T-Mobile and Vodafone how to take things too far. Only these three have the numbers to determine whether the short-term profits they earned were worth the damage to their reputations.