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Europe has a compass – now it must navigate towards a competitive digital future

Like all critical infrastructure – roads, electricity, water – our telecoms and digital connectivity can often sit invisibly within our lives, only noticed when something goes wrong with them.

This understates their value and importance as we, in Europe especially, take for granted amenities that others around the world do not necessarily have such ready access to. There are now 471 million people across Europe who use mobile internet services, equivalent to 79% of the adult population, with all but 1% of citizens living in areas with coverage available to them.

This in turn has direct and indirect benefits for Europe, in particular its economy. The mobile industry contributes €1.1 trillion, or 5% of the continent’s GDP, each year – a number which will only continue to rise.

The GSMA’s recent Mobile Economy Europe report also highlights the 3.4 million European jobs the mobile sector drives. On an industrial and financial level, this is a significant and important sector. However, if we are to ensure it continues to grow and thrive, and in turn allow businesses and individuals to do similarly by benefitting from this connectivity, it urgently needs regulatory reform and support.

2025 finds Europe at a crossroads, with a new European Commission tasked with supercharging the digital economy in the context of EU Digital Decade targets which, less than five years out from their deadline, look improbable at best.

“Competitiveness” is a clear and pressing priority in Brussels following stark reports from Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi last year and in light of heavyweight investment commitments in AI from other major economies, most notably the USA. As AI drives exponential traffic growth across our digital infrastructure, so this infrastructure becomes even more important as an enabler of innovation and industry rather than a limiting factor.

While 5G is set to become the dominant mobile technology in Europe next year, this is the result of significant investment to date from telecoms operators, and still leaves many millions of people without these crucial high-quality connectivity By the end of the decade, attention will already have switched to the next generation

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