EU Telco CEOs Urge Consolidation & Reform
At an FT Live event, chief executives from Europe’s leading telecommunications and technology organisations, including Orange, Nokia and Telefónica, presented a united front. They delivered a stark warning: Europe faces the significant risk of falling further behind on the global stage unless the industry accelerates market consolidation and streamlines its complex regulatory frameworks.
The leaders, joined by a senior figure from General Atlantic, argued that strategic alignment on AI and public-private collaboration is now essential for building a stronger European digital economy.
Executives painted a clear picture of an industry grappling with fragmented markets and the urgent need for greater strategic cohesion.
Vittorio Colao, former Italian minister for technological innovation and current vice chairman EMEA at General Atlantic, highlighted the core issue of inconsistent policy application across the continent. “There has been uneven implementation in the digital area,” said Vittorio.
“It’s very important to start having a single legislation across Europe, but the problem is speed of implementation.
"The big thing will be to shorten technology adoption time and for everything to be more focused.”
Efforts to scale operations across Europe are consistently challenged by intense global competition and a lack of harmonised national strategies, which in turn makes regulation more complex.
Justin Hotard, CEO at Nokia, argued that innovation is being stifled. “Technology is getting lost in regulation and policy. We need less regulation,” Justin explained. He pointed to GDPR as a prime example of waiting for the proper, well-considered regulation before implementation.
“It’s a question of: how do we get access to scale and capital? How do we support large market access? We leverage the market we have here, reduce regulation and then level that regulation until we understand what the technology is doing and then regulate responsibly.”
The panel unanimously highlighted that reforming merger guidelines is a critical priority. They positioned consolidation not as a threat to competition, but as a prerequisite for competing globally and funding next-generation network investments.
Marc Murtra, Chairman and CEO of Telefónica, spoke about the precarious financial realities facing operators. “With consolidation, we have to be flexible. There are many efficiencies to be made and we need to simplify our focus,” Marc stated.
“The margins are tiny, our balances are fragile and, if regulation is uncertain, for example, with regards to spectrum, it’s much harder to invest seven years down the line.”
Christel Heydemann, CEO of the Orange Group, referenced her company’s recent merger in Spain, noting that 18 months after closing the deal, consumer prices have continued to decline. She challenged the prevailing regulatory mindset.
“I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding that our markets have changed,” she said. “We are in a very mature market, where actually the market, because of demography, is slowly but surely in decline. And do we need scale to be able to be competitive?
"Absolutely, yes. So we’re talking about merger guidelines to help create scale in our own markets that helps us continue to invest for security.”
Against a complex geopolitical backdrop, the executives made a compelling case for treating telecommunications networks as fundamental national assets.
Justin stressed that safeguarding sovereignty and enabling consolidation are not mutually exclusive goals. “The reality is that mobile networks are critical infrastructure.
"If you look at what happened in Ukraine, what was the first thing that the Russians did before they invaded?
"They attempted to take down the networks,” he observed. “Networks are as critical as power infrastructure and even more critical for economic continuity in the short term. We need to recognise that they need to be protected.”
The clear message was that without rapid reform, Europe risks becoming increasingly dependent on non-European technology, undermining both its economic competitiveness and its digital sovereignty.
Looking to the future, the leaders identified Applied AI as the next major competitive arena where Europe can and must succeed. Vittorio urged a shift in focus from foundational models to practical, industry-specific applications.
“It is important to invest in data centres and compute power – but let’s not forget about Applied AI, where the next game is going to be,” he urged. Vittorio advocated for creating a “coalition of the willing” to push forward if pan-European consensus proves too slow.
“You have the customers, you have the trust, so work together to create vertical AI to defend the European industrial sectors.”
Christel agreed, adding that network sovereignty is paramount. “We cannot rely on hyperscalers’ cloud in the core of our networks. So we are investing in open-source telco cloud technology for networks,” she confirmed.
“LLM is not the challenge. The challenge is the data and the applied AI use cases and that’s where Europe cannot miss the battle.”
