BT, Nokia, Vodafone, Orange lead industry push for EU merger policy overhaul

Chief executives from Deutsche Telekom (DT), Orange, Telefonica, TIM, Vodafone, Nokia and Ericsson made the appeal as the Commission prepares to introduce new legislation aimed at overhauling the telecom sector.

The letter was also signed by BT Group, CK Hutchison Group Telecom, KPN, Liberty Global, FiberCop, Swisscom and Telenor.

In response to the upcoming Digital Networks Act, expected to be presented next month, the move aims to provide a more cohesive strategy for accelerating the development of Europe’s digital infrastructure.

However, progress stalled last week after an internal Commission committee issued a negative opinion on the draft, according to a source familiar with the matter,

In a joint letter addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the CEOs said: “The Digital Networks Act is a crucial opportunity.

“Europe has more than 100 mobile operators across 27 countries; unless the Commission takes bold action with a clearly stated intent to address the need for scale, European industries will continue to lack the strength to invest at the same pace as their competitors in the US, Asia and other markets.”

“A forward-looking and ambitious regulatory framework is therefore central to Europe’s fight to become an attractive place for investment again; the Commission must act boldly to recognise the link between scale and investment, and a much-simplified regulatory framework that increases investment capacities for all industrial sectors in the context of communication and compute.”

The full list of signatories includes: