DNA and investment incentives: Draft Report promising on spectrum and innovation, but concerns on roaming and fibre

Brussels, 22 October 2026 – Connect Europe, representing Europe's leading providers of connectivity networks and services, welcomes the investment-oriented steps in ITRE Rapporteur Michał Kobosko's draft report on the Digital Networks Act (DNA), particularly on spectrum licence duration, innovation and a fairer internet ecosystem. However, the proposed roaming changes risk undermining incentives to invest in mobile networks, with potential consequences for consumers and competition. Further ambition on access regulation and copper migration is also needed to unlock investment in gigabit networks.

The decisive test for the DNA is whether Europe's telecom industry will be empowered to deliver 5G, future 6G, fibre and the AI-enabled edge and cloud infrastructure needed by consumers, businesses and governments. Connectivity is a strategic imperative, and the DNA should reflect an industrial vision geared towards growth, innovation and investment.

Positive steps

• Spectrum licences that reward investment. Supporting indefinite spectrum rights and a 50-year minimum for time-limited licences would give operators greater certainty to invest in 5G and future 6G. Prioritising coverage and deployment commitments over upfront spectrum charges would further support network investment.

• Room for innovation and more equal rules. The draft appears to take positive steps towards clearer rules on traffic management and innovative services while extending relevant open-internet requirements across the digital value chain, including to content and application providers and content delivery networks.

• A fairer internet ecosystem, safeguarding European innovators. Requiring significant traffic providers to negotiate interconnection is a meaningful step towards more balanced commercial relationships and stronger incentives for network investment and innovation in Europe.

Key concerns 

• Roaming changes risk weakening investment. Removing explicit safeguards against permanent roaming and further lowering wholesale roaming caps could undermine incentives to invest in future network coverage, capacity and resilience. They could also encourage regulatory arbitrage and create fraud, security and enforcement risks, potentially benefiting non-European players without comparable investment in EU networks. Europe must protect the sustainability of Roam Like at Home for European citizens.

• Access rules need greater ambition. The draft largely retains the traditional significant-market-power framework, a prescriptive hierarchy of remedies and a harmonised access product, rather than delivering a forward-looking, more symmetric regime that supports fibre investment while preserving targeted safeguards for genuine local bottlenecks.

• Copper migration remains too prescriptive. Removing the uniform EU-wide switch-off deadline and easing the process are welcome, but a mandatory copper switch-off regime remains. Fibre migration should protect consumer choice and infrastructure competition, and be driven by demand, commercial decisions and local market conditions, not regulatory mandates.

• Pan-European spectrum reservations. The possibility of EU-level awards for portions of newly harmonised spectrum risks reducing the spectrum available for national assignments and raises concerns about spectrum efficiency, competition and investment incentives.

• Simplification must mean less red tape. Additional end-user obligations and continued scope for national universal-service measures risk adding complexity and fragmentation. Europe needs meaningful regulatory relief and stronger harmonisation, not new national divergences.

Connect Europe looks forward to working constructively with Rapporteur Kobosko, the European Parliament and the Council to strengthen the positive investment and innovation measures while addressing provisions that could hold back network deployment. This statement reflects Connect Europe's initial assessment of the draft report. A more detailed analysis will follow.