Connect Europe Videos

Petra Wikström, the Director of Public Policy at Schibsted, a Nordic media and digital consumer brands group, provides insights from the perspective of a local player competing against global tech giants. She also explains how regulation can contribute to creating a fair and competitive landscape.

Senior Vice President Nordic CTO at Telenor Ingeborg Øfsthus describes how telecom operators should change their business model: by de-bundling, virtualising and cloudifying the way they deliver services. At the same time, she considers that telcos should better work across borders to create scales.

Pearse O'Donohue (Director for the Future of Networks at European Commission's DG CONNECT) highlights what it takes for Europe to become a global leader in network innovation: embracing technological changes (Open RAN, Edge Computing, virtualisation), ensuring security by design, adopting Artificial Intelligence tools and ensuring sustainability of networks.

According to MEP Andreas Schwab, the Digital Markets Act is essential to ensure that competition policy values and aims are implemented not only in the old economy, but also in the digital world. “The DMA has changed a paradigm, and digital markets will be much fairer in the future”, he states. Do you want to be kept up to date with the latest telecoms news and agenda? If so, sign up now for the weekly digital newsletter: https://www.etno.eu/news/etnodigital.html

MEP and Gigabit Infrastructure Act rapporteur Alin Mituța mentions some of the objectives of this piece of EU legislation: accelerating FTTH rollout, reducing bureaucracy and bridging the connectivity gap between rural and urban areas. Do you want to be kept up to date with the latest telecoms news and agenda? If so, sign up now for the weekly digital newsletter: https://www.etno.eu/news/etnodigital.html

Apritel Secretary General Pedro Mota Soares wonders how we can balance the relationship between big technology companies and operators serving their end customers. He gives the example of internet traffic in the Portuguese Islands of Azores and Madeira. Do you want to be kept up to date with the latest telecoms news and agenda? If so, sign up now for the weekly digital newsletter: https://www.etno.eu/news/etnodigital.html

"A two-tiered digital world where the developing world is left behind cannot be allowed to happen. Big tech must be part of the solution. And must play and pay their part" says Digicel Group's David Geary, using the current situation at the Caribbean as an example. Do you want to be kept up to date with the latest telecoms news and agenda? If so, sign up now for the weekly digital newsletter: https://www.etno.eu/news/etnodigital.html

Mr. England describes the relation between content application providers & telecom operators as pretty one sided at the moment, and stands for a mutually beneficial relationship between CAPs & telecom operators to continue building strong, high-capacity networks delivering quality services to their shared customers.

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter considers that big tech companies have acknowledged the importance of secure, fast, resilient and sustainable networks, which the pandemic highlighted in ways that could never have been imagined. Moreover, Mr. Spalter defined the relationship between content application providers and telecommunications as "very strong and very symbiotic".

Ms. Jégo-Laveissière highlighted that telecom operators and content application providers are working together on different initiatives such as RCS, devices or lightening operative systems to develop smartphones in Africa. Nevertheless, “there are also topics where collaboration is tougher. We really want to share the investment for the extra cost for the connectivity. It is not always easy, but we will keep discussing it”, she added.

Innovation in connectivity has the potential elevate current and future trends: 5G, AI, Edge Cloud, to name a few. Senior Vice President and President of Qualcomm Europe Enrico Salvatori highlighted that innovation in these technologies is necessary also for the upcoming Metaverse services and the digitisation of our economies.

Ms. Samren told ETNO that recent reports on climate change are very worrying, and more acceleration of climate action is also needed. "Telia Company and the telco sector are ready to do their part by taking responsibility for their own footprint and enabling other industries to reduce emissions and become much smarter about energy usage. That is through products such as smart cities, smart energy, and smart transport, whereby helping other sectors reduce both their energy consumption and overall emissions".