The Executive Chairman of Telef\u00f3nica, Marc Murtra, defended today in Barcelona, during the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the need for the European Union (EU) to promote the consolidation of the telco sector to boost its strategic and technological sovereignty. \u201cWe need scale, we need pro- technology regulation and we need more speed,\u201d he said during his participation in a panel entitled \u2018What does strategic technological sovereignty mean for Europe?\u2019, which was moderated by the Director General of GSMA, Vivek Badrinath, and in which the CEO of Deutsche Telekom, Tim H\u00f6ttges, and the CEO of Eutelsat, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Fallacher, also participated.<\/p>\n
Murtra stressed that Europe must progress in three ways to increase its strategic sovereignty. The first is the scale of the telco sector. \u201cWe need larger companies, with more resources, more risk capacity, better coverage and the ability to make deeper technological investments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The second is regulation. \u201cRegulation must establish priorities. I think we are in a period where we need to prioritise the creation of technology. Regulation must be pro-technology and enable investment and innovation\u201d, he defended.<\/p>\n
The third point is the need to act quickly. The chairman of Telef\u00f3nica has called for regulation to be adapted to the current reality, in which changes are accelerating with the emergence of AI, generating products very quickly. \u201cIn this sector, we have witnessed technological changes compounded over 30 years. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen a more profound change than the last three months with AI. We\u2019re seeing new AI models almost every month. The way of programming, testing programs and developing products has change completely in just three months,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to be sovereign, we will need digital products,\u201d he added. In this sense, he has called for the need for Europe to have cybersecurity products. \u201cIf we want strategic autonomy, we need our own cybersecurity capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The chairman of Telef\u00f3nica has focused on the obligation to have hyperscalers to take advantage of the benefits that come with greater size. \u201cHyperscalers handle enormous amounts of information, and if we rely on third-party software and technology, that technology can potentially be used for other purposes,\u201d he warned. A third block of need corresponds to the convenience of having AI products that are their own. \u201cI don\u2019t see how Europe can be sovereign without cybersecurity products, without hypercaler software management, without artificial intelligence capabilities and without access to the algorithms that shape how our children, our teenagers and our adults perceive the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For all this, Murtra has reinforced \u201cthe priority has to be investment in technology. That must come first,\u201d he requested. From there, supporting mergers and acquisitions in the sector so that it can be consolidated, as gaining scale will benefit society as a whole. \u201cAllow us to gain scale as part of a broader social contract, and in return, we will invest in technology. It will enable us to offer better services, deliver more value and strengthen our competitiveness,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n