Brussels – Chief Executive Officers of the leading telecoms operators from Europe and beyond gathered today at the ETNO-Financial Times CEO Summit opened by Vice-President Kroes. Coinciding with the 20th Anniversary of ETNO, the Summit, which attracted up to 350 delegates, is looking at the main developments in telecoms markets over the past years as well as the growth opportunities and the ways to unleash them.

Ahead of the Summit, Chief Executive Officers had a separate meeting with President Barroso and Vice-President Kroes at which they reiterated support to the recent announcement on the new regulatory environment for broadband, as it improves legal certainty and incentives to invest in high speed access infrastructure and provide benefits for consumers. In a joint statement, CEOs also strongly defend the EU’s proposed budget package, the structural funds for ICT and the Connecting Europe Facility.

“20 years after the start of the liberalization of the telecoms sector, the EU telecoms sector is at a crossroads. Investing in faster network is to the advantage of both telecom operators – this will increase usage and the value of their networks – and content providers. To allow this win-win relationship to work, actors along the value chain should come to agreements on how to get the most value out of networks and to provide better and more enhanced services to other players and to consumers. Ultimately, a well functioning digital internal market, to the benefit of European citizens cannot be achieved if global challenges are not faced today,” said Luigi Gambardella, ETNO Executive Board Chair.

“The new regulatory environment for broadband investment recently announced by Vice-President Kroes has sent a positive message to the telecoms investors’ community. It is now essential that the spirit of this announcement is fully reflected in the forthcoming EC recommendations and in their implementation by national regulators. The Commission’s new approach has put an end to uncertainty and can generate a new momentum in the sector, leading to more growth and investment”, said Daniel Pataki, ETNO Director.

The A.T. Kearney report entitled “A Future Policy Framework For Growth” presented at the Summit identifies opportunities for growth in the sector. New value-added offers are seen as positive for both consumers and operators and according to A.T. Kearney could lead to up to €32 billion additional annual revenue by 2020. Furthermore, the sector must focus on reversing the decline in core communication revenues by monetising the growth in broadband traffic and also improve its competitiveness. The report also notes that growth will only be possible if the right policy conditions are in place and suggests improvements to the regulatory and competition policy framework.

For more information please visit www.atkearney.com

To consult the joint statement, please click here

To consult the full agenda, please visit: www.ftconferences.com/etno/

For more information, please contact: Thierry Dieu, ETNO Director for Communications and Public Policy Tel: (32-2) 219 32 42 Fax: (32-2) 219 64 12 E-mail: dieu@etno.be

ETNO’s 38 member companies and 12 observers from Europe and beyond represent a significant part of total ICT activity in Europe. They account for an aggregate annual turnover of more than €600 billion and employ over 1.6 million people. ETNO companies are the main drivers of broadband and are committed to its continual growth in Europe.