MVNO Europe - Europe's Competitiveness Depends on a Truly Open Telecoms Market, Not on Increased Concentration That Benefits a Handful of Mobile Operators

This is the warning that MVNO Europe – through its President Jacques Bonifay – has issued to the European Commission in an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen and Vice-President Henna Virkkunen. As discussions on the Digital Networks Act (DNA) enter their decisive phase, the association, which brings together alternative mobile operators in Europe, points out that the EU's digital ambition can only be achieved if competition remains a structuring principle, not an adjustment variable.

While some players are calling for "necessary" consolidation in the sector, MVNO Europe warns against a simplistic and economically dangerous vision. "Reducing the number of operators has never guaranteed innovation, access for European industries, or fair conditions for new digital services. On the contrary, the historical driver of European competitiveness has always been the diversity of players, models, technologies and services," says Jacques Bonifay, President of MVNO Europe and CEO of Transatel.

Regularly recognised for their customer satisfaction, MVNOs are essential drivers of this diversity. However, they continue to face restrictive practices that limit their access to networks, hamper their ability to innovate and slow down the development of a truly single European market for connectivity. In his letter to the Presidency of the European Commission, Jacques Bonifay stresses that this environment directly hinders the digital transformation of strategic sectors such as the automotive industry, the Industrial Internet of Things, cross-border services and connected infrastructure.

To avoid this scenario, MVNO Europe calls on the Commission to strictly maintain the pillars of the existing framework: non-discrimination obligations in spectrum licences (Article 52(2) of the EECC), maintenance of the relevant market and significant market power (SMP) regime, and harmonisation of definitions for IoT, M2M and connected vehicles. The association is also calling for the introduction of guarantees allowing permanent roaming access for industrial services and the possibility for all operators to connect to multiple networks in each Member State, which is essential for the resilience and continuity of critical services such as connected cars and automated production lines.

For MVNO Europe, the message is clear: the DNA must be an accelerator of innovation, not a pretext for a step backwards. Europe will only remain competitive if it protects an open, contestable market that is conducive to investment for all.

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