AVM chief executive Jan Oetjen is urging European policymakers to treat routers as critical infrastructure, as a new industry alliance calls for tougher controls and AI-assisted security.
Jan Oetjen, the chief executive of AVM, has used the NetworkX conference in Vienna to argue that routers deserve far more attention in Europe’s debate on digital sovereignty. Speaking to Der Standard, he said the ordinary Wi-Fi router sits at the centre of most home and office traffic, carrying the bulk of everyday online activity, from remote work and banking to smart-home services. He presented the device not as a minor accessory, but as a strategic point of control in the network. Paragraph 1: [2], [3]
Oetjen also framed artificial intelligence as a double-edged tool in cybersecurity. According to his interview, AVM is using AI not only to improve diagnostics and software efficiency, but also to probe its own code for weaknesses before attackers do the same. He argued that this matters because modern operating systems can contain tens of millions of lines of code, making manual review insufficient. In his view, the immediate value of AI in networking is less about consumer-facing features than about tightening defences and shortening the time needed to identify faults. Paragraph 2: [2]
His central policy argument was that Europe is lagging behind other major markets in regulating routers. Oetjen told Der Standard that the United States has already moved to exclude Chinese routers, while China has long blocked American and European devices, leaving Europe as the only region that still allows equipment from across the world to enter without comparable controls. That claim sits alongside wider calls from the sector for a European framework that treats routers as critical infrastructure, particularly because compromise at this layer can expose entire households or businesses. Paragraph 3: [2], [5], [6], [7]
The AVM chief also tied the debate to industrial policy. He said the company manufactures in Europe and develops its software in Berlin, giving it direct control over the full stack, from code review to cloud services hosted under European law. AVM’s own press material says Oetjen became chief executive in September 2024 after more than two decades in the IT industry, and the company has since presented him as part of a broader push to strengthen its international presence. Paragraph 4: [3]
That thinking has helped drive SAFENet, a new industry alliance founded in June 2026 by FRITZ!, devolo, LANCOM and TDT. According to the alliance’s own launch material and related reporting, the group wants routers included more explicitly in Europe’s digital-sovereignty agenda and is pressing for a security toolbox modelled on the approach used for 5G. Oetjen warned that Europe risks repeating the solar-panel story, where domestic capability was overtaken by foreign supply chains, unless policymakers act sooner on network hardware. Paragraph 5: [4], [6], [5]
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