Seventeen European telecoms leaders urge Brussels to overhaul regulations to accelerate investments in 5G, fibre, and future 6G infrastructure, warning current policies risk stifling industry growth amid the move to modernise digital connectivity.
Seventeen leading European telecoms executives have called on Brussels to change course on telecoms policy, arguing that the European Union must create conditions that unlock far more spending on networks, 5G, fibre and 6G. Their intervention comes as the bloc moves ahead with the Digital Networks Act, a proposal the European Commission adopted on 21 January 2026 to modernise connectivity rules and push investment in advanced digital infrastructure.
In a joint statement released through Connect Europe, the executives said the current direction of travel does not go far enough to improve the economics of investment. They also warned that the Cybersecurity Act could absorb capital that would otherwise be directed towards network deployment. The letter specifically highlights the costs that could arise from forced removal of equipment from so-called high-risk suppliers, an issue that has already become politically sensitive across Europe.
The signatories said horizontal removal requirements could cost the industry as much as €40 billion in replacement spending. They also pointed to recent research suggesting that the impact would not be limited to balance-sheet costs, but could include service disruption and harm to customers. Rather than blanket replacement rules, they want a risk-based approach that considers alternative safeguards, the lifespan of network assets and the question of compensation.
The executives argued that Europe still needs major investment to build world-class mobile networks, even though the connectivity sector already contributes about 5% of EU gross domestic product and telecoms operators spend roughly €64 billion a year. They said an additional €475 billion is still needed to deliver world-class mobile infrastructure. Among the priorities they listed were gigabit connectivity for all, standalone 5G for industry, subsea cables, satellites and, later, 6G.
They also focused on spectrum policy, backing the Commission’s view that licences should normally be indefinite and, in exceptional cases, last at least 40 years. Europe’s telecoms industry has spent €110 billion on spectrum licences over the past 12 years, and the executives said reducing the frequency of auctions would free more capital for fibre, 5G and future 6G networks. On fibre, they said operators are already investing more than €30 billion a year in fibre-to-the-home, but argued that the forced retirement of still-functioning copper and fibre networks would be the wrong way to accelerate the transition.
The group also called for lighter ex-ante regulation, saying rules built for legacy copper markets should not be carried over unchanged to today’s more competitive fibre environment. At the same time, they backed the principles of an open internet while asking for clearer legal certainty around 5G and 6G features such as network slicing and differentiated quality of service. Beyond regulation, they framed telecoms as a strategic industry for Europe’s wider push for technological autonomy, pointing to roles in artificial intelligence infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms, defence communications, drone detection and secure satellite links.
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