- Leaders including Orange, Telefónica and Nokia warn Europe’s fragmented telco market risks falling behind unless consolidation accelerates.
- Officials call for harmonised regulation, quicker tech adoption, and increased protection of critical networks.
What happened: Telco leaders urge regulatory reform and market consolidation
CEOs from Orange, Telefónica, Nokia, and other major European telecoms companies met at FT Live to address challenges facing the industry, including regulatory fragmentation and slow technology adoption. Vittorio Colao, vice chairman EMEA at General Atlantic and former Italian minister for digital innovation, said it’s crucial to speed up legislation across Europe. Justin Hotard (Nokia) argued that regulatory frameworks are failing to keep pace with innovation, suggesting regulations should follow and shape policy only after understanding how technology is changing.
Christel Heydemann, CEO at Orange Group, said merger guidelines need reform to enable scale and investment. Telefónica’s Marc Murtra similarly noted that uncertainties around spectrum regulation and market access make long-term investment difficult. All panelists emphasised that consolidation isn’t just about size—it is tied to efficiency, competitiveness and network security.
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Why it is important
The push from these influential leaders reflects deep concern over Europe’s ability to compete globally in AI, cloud, infrastructure and digital services. Regulatory disunity across jurisdictions creates inefficiencies, delays and cost burdens that hamper investment and innovation. For consumers this means higher prices, slower deployment of new services, and potential lag behind other regions.
From a policy and strategic perspective, streamlined merger rules, harmonised laws and clearer roles for regulation are essential for enabling investment at scale, especially in critical networks. As cybersecurity, sovereignty and digital resilience become more central to state policy, aligning telecoms regulation with those priorities becomes urgent. The collective call by these CEOs adds weight to regulatory reform debates and possibly sets the agenda for upcoming EU policy sessions.
