The starting point for the DNA should be simple: regulation should make space for investment and market-driven innovation. Essentially, we need a genuine telecom omnibus. That means cutting redundant rules rather than adding new layers of complexity. It means moving toward real harmonization across the single market rather than allowing room for national gold plating. Today, the draft DNA proposal removes three reporting obligations while maintaining 17 existing ones and adding an additional 12. Co-legislators can help fix this.
On fiber, Europe should embrace a deregulatory approach, as suggested by the Draghi report. Let’s get out of the ‘regulation first’ mindset and instead embrace market-driven competition.
This means we must avoid the temptation of rigid, one-size-fits-all switch-off mandates. Fiber migration is already well underway, with FTTH coverage above 77 percent. In many countries, uptake has grown without regulatory coercion. The transition from copper to fiber should be a commercial decision, supported by best practices, deployment incentives and demand-side measures, not by uniform timelines disconnected from local realities.
The same future-oriented approach is needed for access regulation. The DNA should set out a clear path toward deregulation, with a “safety net” to address genuinely exceptional local bottlenecks. In other words: protect consumers where it matters rather than trying to shape markets by public intervention. Europe should avoid creating EU-wide access products that risk undermining the simplification agenda and regulatory certainty. Remedies, where needed, must be justified, proportionate, time-bound and clearly supportive of network deployment.
Competitiveness and consumer welfare are not opposites.
The DNA must also provide long-term certainty on spectrum. This is the one clear pro-investment measure included in the current Commission proposal. If it were to be removed, that would send extremely negative signals to those who are ready to invest in 5G and future 6G. Investment in mobile networks requires predictability. Licenses should be indefinite or long term, supported by legally secure renewal frameworks. Spectrum policy should reinforce scale and confidence, not create uncertainty.
Europe also needs Open Internet rules fit for modern networks. The principles of openness must be preserved and extended to other key digital service providers, but the rules must recognize technology shifts. Advanced 5G, cloud-native networks, quality differentiation and network slicing can support new industrial, business and consumer services. Regulation should not prevent Europeans from benefiting from the very networks Europe says it wants to build.
