Fixing telecoms regulation for scale and investment: What’s needed under the Digital Networks Act

Executive summary

Europe’s ambition to lead in connectivity is being held back by a regulatory framework that no longer matches the realities of today’s digital infrastructure. As the Commission explores reform through the upcoming Digital Networks Act (DNA), it is time to move towards a simplified, harmonised and investment-focused model.

This paper builds on DIGITALEUROPE’s existing positions, which remain valid, to address the elements raised in the European Commission’s call for evidence. We support the DNA as a corrective framework – not an expansion – and urge action in the following key areas:

• Simplify and harmonise: Replacing the current directive with a regulation can improve legal certainty and consistency across Member States. But simplification must go beyond legal form: it must reduce regulatory burden for operators and eliminate outdated obligations that hinder innovation and scale.
• Shift access regulation towards a more proportionate model: The EU’s access framework should better reflect market realities and encourage investment. We welcome the Commission’s proposal to introduce a harmonised EU-wide access product as a default remedy where competition issues are identified. Ex ante obligations should be applied only where necessary.
• Strengthen spectrum coordination whilst respecting national contexts: Europe must end fragmented spectrum assignments that delay deployment and deter investment. We support minimum licence durations of 20 years, investment-friendly payment terms and an EU-level roadmap to ensure timely and coherent spectrum release, particularly as 6G approaches.
• Simplification is the ‘level playing field’: The right way to level the playing field is not by expanding telecoms rules to cloud, over-the-top or other digital service providers, but by reducing obligations that weigh disproportionately on telecoms operators. Clear regulatory boundaries between distinct market segments must be preserved.
• Clarify the rules on specialised services: Uncertainty has discouraged providers from launching innovative services like 5G slicing or ultra-low-latency vertical applications. Clarifying that such services are compatible with net neutrality is essential to unlocking next-generation use cases.
• Secure Europe’s digital backbone: Geopolitical tensions expose vulnerabilities in Europe’s digital infrastructure. To ensure resilience, the EU must enforce harmonised network security standards, strengthen 5G Toolbox implementation and develop certification schemes reflecting new architectures like virtualisation, AI and Open RAN.