The chief executives of 10 major European telecoms operators this week put their names to a new call for change in the industry, highlighting the need for market consolidation and an overhaul of network access regulations.
The executives, all members of ETNO’s executive board, shared their views on the future of the European telecoms market at a time of particular uncertainty for telcos.
"Our sector is in need of building scale, and markets need to function at optimal levels," the execs said in a statement. "Consolidation, which creates that scale, will lead in turn to better outcomes for our customers, especially in light of the increasing demands on networks and services in the future."
Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke and Johan Dennelind, chief executive of TeliaSonera, were among the signatories (full list below). Their companies had planned to merge their operations in Denmark to build the scale to compete more effectively, but they were forced to abandon the deal last month after objections from the European Commission’s competition body.
Essentially, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager determined that Denmark requires four mobile network operators in order to be competitive, rather than the three the TeliaSonera/Telenor tie-up would have left it with.
The move sent shockwaves through the industry, which had broadly expected the deal to pass with a series of remedies, and raised serious questions over the likely success of other ongoing mergers in the region.
"We believe that competition policy should ensure a comprehensive assessment that includes investment, innovation, efficiency and quality of service," the operators said.
The telcos addressed the broader question of regulation of the European telecoms industry, noting that the industry will have invested €86 billion in broadband deployment by 2020 and will still be left with a €106 billion shortfall, unless major regulatory reforms are carried out, according to a study from the Boston Consulting Group.
"For this reason, we support the European Commission in its review of the Telecoms Framework and we encourage a swift, broad re-thinking of Europe’s policy and regulatory toolset for the digital age," they said.
The operators are calling for changes to wholesale regulation to reflect the fact that technologies like fibre, upgraded copper, mobile and cable are all now used for delivering high-speed Internet access.
"Commercial terms for network access should be the rule; regulation should be the exception," they said.
They also spoke up for spectrum reform, demanding "a truly European approach to spectrum allocation."
"We support a political agreement between the European Commission and governments on how to ensure harmonised spectrum management across the EU," they said.
Finally, the telcos also addressed the issue of net neutrality, highlighting the importance of network quality and diversification of services as new markets emerged, such as connected cars, e-health and online content distribution.
"All of this requires network management as well as differentiation of services," the operators said. "This awareness should drive implementation and any future policy debate on the topic."
Full list of signatories:
Rami Aslan,
CEO, Turk Telekom
Eelco Blok,
CEO, KPN
Timotheus Höttges,
CEO, Deutsche Telekom
?Stéphane Richard,
CEO, Orange
?Paulo Neves,
CEO, PT Portugal
?Dominique Leroy,
CEO, Proximus
?César Alierta Izuel,
CEO, Telefón ica
?Alejandro Plater,
CEO, Telekom Austria Group
?Giuseppe Recchi,
Executive chairman, Telecom Italia
