Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao has criticised telecoms regulators for their “continuous intervention” on pricing issues and called on them to allow operators to invest in next-generation networks.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,…
Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao has criticised telecoms regulators for their “continuous intervention” on pricing issues and called on them to allow operators to invest in next-generation networks.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Colao attacked so-called “autopilot regulation”, which he argued was continuously intervening on issues like mobile termination rates.
In his talk, Colao emphasised that four key services – 100% ubiquity of data services, excellence in customer service, security and privacy, convenience and trust – cannot be delivered without a “healthy operator environment”.
Other CEOs from major telcos also highlighted the crucial role of regulators in supporting telecoms growth.
The CEO of AT&T Mobility, Ralph de la Vega, argued that the industry needed regulators to be supportive of its business models, particularly by making more spectrum available.
Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe said that government and regulators play a fundamental role and need “to facilitate growth”.
Neelie Kroes calls for new business models
In her own speech at the MWC, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said the industry should respond to the challenge of the growth of digital services with new business models.
She suggested that this could potentially include a greater integration of fixed and mobile networks, as “fixed wireless solutions” like wifi could help free up spectrum for “truly mobile traffic”.
Kroes highlighted the importance of avoiding a “spectrum crunch” and said that at least 1200MHz of harmonised spectrum for wireless broadband would be identified by 2015 under the EU’s new spectrum policy programme.
Kroes also said that she wanted every European to have access to 30Mb coverage, and at least half of the population to have access to 100Mb coverage by 2020.
She added that this would require “an intelligent mix of complementary technologies, deployed incrementally, and according to local circumstances”.
