European mobile operators’ economic contribution will reach €1tn by 2030, Telceoms.com has reported.
This growth will be driven by the continued expansion of the ecosystem and the take-up of advanced mobile services by more and more verticals.
Europe’s mobile operators are doing brilliantly, according to a new GSMA report, but it still wants regulators to give them free rein to potentially ruin everything.
Highlights from its annual European Mobile Economy report include the sector’s €910bn contribution to Europe’s economy in 2022, and its employment of 2.2 million people – both directly and indirectly.
Mobile-based productivity generated €670bn of value to the economy, while operators’ own contribution generated €110bn. Operators also paid €110bn of taxes last year.
In terms of coverage and usage, 460 million Europeans are now covered by mobile networks, reducing the coverage gap to just 14 percent. There are 900 million active phone connections in Europe, and penetration of smartphones and feature phones is expected to reach 91 percent by the end of the decade.
As for 5G, networks are on course to reach 87 percent of all mobile users by 2030, and the technology itself is expected to generate €153bn of economic benefits.
However, the GSMA wants policymakers to disregard these achievements and undertake a regulatory experiment that could have some unintended and unwelcome consequences for end users.
“Europe has a strong history of leadership in mobile and digital technologies, but strong, sustained investment in networks is now needed to regain that leadership in the face of global competition,” said the VP for policy and regulation, and head of Europe for the GSMA, Daniel Pataki.
To underscore its point, the GSMA noted that only five percent of commercial 5G networks in Europe have been upgraded to standalone (SA), compared to 25 percent in Asia-Pacific.
The GSMA claims Europe requires a reset of its policy framework governing digital communications, reforming what it calls outdated — and still, largely national — regulatory approaches that have failed to deliver on the vision for a single telecoms market.
Recent developments, including the European Commission’s consultation on whether so-called large traffic generators should contribute to the cost of infrastructure investment – the fair share debate – and European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s call to facilitate consolidation that will create pan-European super-telcos, are welcome developments, he said.
The GSMA expects mobile network traffic to triple over the next five years, and therefore “our report shows that action is needed now to give European citizens and businesses the digital infrastructure they need for the future”.
