At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, telecom CEOs urged regulators to ease restrictions, enabling operators to merge and streamline the continent’s fragmented market.
The push comes after Mario Draghi’s recent report, which warned that the EU’s current regulations have hampered necessary consolidation, leaving Europe with too many small players to innovate at scale.
Marc Murtra, CEO of Telefónica, argues that greater market power is essential to invest in the technologies that will drive Europe’s future.
While some mergers have already been realized, industry leaders stress that more significant change is needed to remain competitive globally.
Critics, however, warn that such consolidation could lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle the very innovation these companies claim to foster.
