Why connectivity matters to policymakers
Connectivity is the lifeblood of a modern, inclusive and competitive Europe. It empowers people with access to opportunity, strengthens our public services, and fuels the growth of our businesses and national economies.
But to achieve its full potential, Europe urgently needs forward-looking telecoms policies that boost investment in secure, resilient digital networks. With bold action and smarter regulation, we can unlock a transformative new era of prosperity, innovation and strategic autonomy.
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5G standalone is the next big leap in mobile technology. It’s faster, more reliable, and built for the future, supporting smart factories, AI, autonomous transport and much more. It’s also a chance to close the digital gap between urban and rural areas, ensuring that everyone in Europe benefits.
CONNECTIVITY
Why telecoms matters
Next-generation connectivity can play a critical role in improving European competitiveness. Digitisation driven by new 5G technologies is a €1 trillion opportunity to boost innovation, increase industrial efficiency and improve public service.
How digitalisation can drive change
Digitalisation offers a €1 trillion opportunity for the EU – equivalent to adding another Netherlands to Europe’s economic output. In today’s world, digitalisation is one of the most potent drivers and multipliers of competitiveness.
Connectivity and digitalisation are key enablers of industrial rejuvenation
Manufacturing is one of the strongest drivers of European productivity, punching above its weight to ensure consistent overall year-on-year growth rates. But European manufacturing – and its competitiveness – is under threat from higher energy and raw material costs.
We need a step change in industrial productivity, innovation, and overall competitiveness. A successful shift to digitalised manufacturing can rejuvenate industrial activity and rebuild Europe’s competitiveness.
Transforming Europe’s energy mix
Europe’s dependence on imported fossil fuels is environmentally detrimental and poses serious political and economic challenges. Digital transformation is a key lever in delivering a successful green transition, offering solutions that can tackle energy demand and supply challenges.
New technologies can unlock energy and resource efficiencies across sectors, including logistics, energy, agriculture, building and manufacturing. It is estimated that these solutions can cut global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20% by 2030.
Enabling rural and agricultural transformation
Europe needs to strengthen its existing rural sectors and promote rural economic diversification. This will improve the lives and outcomes of rural populations and relieve pressures in cities associated with increasing urbanisation.
Through remote and flexible working, connectivity can revitalise rural life by offering access to services and jobs traditionally limited to cities, encouraging talent to live rural communities. And next-generation connectivity supporting smart agriculture will have a crucial role in improving crop yields and supporting sustainability.
Improving access and efficiency of patient care
Europe faces the challenge of an aging population, continued shortages of healthcare professionals and persistent budget constraints that stifle quality publicly funded care. Deteriorating healthcare systems also have knock-on effects on the economy, ranging from workforce productivity losses to rising social inequality.
Digital connectivity can deliver direct and immediate returns by improving access and efficiency of patient care through telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. Across the entire EU, these types of digital healthcare technologies could save up to €120 billion annually.
Promoting digital skills for better employment opportunities
Only 54% of working age Europeans have sufficient digital skills for current workforce requirements and 70% of European businesses identify a lack of digital proficiency among their staff as an obstacle to investment. A growing digital skills gap will also exacerbate other overlapping challenges, including worsening inequality, regional/rural disparities, education poverty, and the digital divide.
Future jobs and businesses need a workforce equipped with the right digital skills to take advantage of new technologies and close the productivity gap – particularly if Europe is to keep up in areas such as AI and cyber security.
How Europe can achieve its digital dividend
Europe needs a pro-investment, pro-innovation approach to evolving its digital infrastructure.
There is a clear path to accelerate Europe's digital transition:
Invest early and confidently
Other countries aren’t waiting – they have created demand through bold investment. Europe can do the same.
Treat connectivity as essential infrastructure
Like roads and railways, digital networks must be a national priority. They drive growth, inclusion and resilience.
Modernise the rules
Europe’s telecoms regulation urgently needs an upgrade. The Digital Networks Act is a golden opportunity to build a framework fit for the future.
To reclaim Europe’s competitiveness and retake a digital leadership position, Europe’s policymakers must reboot regulation in key areas:
Why Europe needs a true Digital Single Market
Vodafone believes there is huge potential in unleashing the power of the Single Market for the benefit of every European. This is why in a new report – Why Europe needs a True Digital Single Market – Vodafone has brought together a collection of six expert perspectives to spark debate and catalyse meaningful change.
These contributions challenge policy makers to ask what an ideal, future-proof regulatory framework could look like if designed from scratch today, based on three interlocking principles: Simplification, Same Service, Same Rules, and Single Market.
What can we learn from Vodafone’s merger with Three in the UK?
In early December 2024, the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) published its Final Report granting conditional approval to the merger of Vodafone and Three in the UK. The CMA decision represents a watershed moment for how competition authorities can assess and approve market consolidation between mobile network operators.
Vodafone’s report – What can we learn from Vodafone’s merger with Three in the UK? - sets out what we believe led to the change in approach to mobile mergers in the UK, putting forward the main lessons for any future assessment of mobile mergers in the European Union.
A Framework For Responsible Use of Networks
Europe stands on the brink of a new era in connectivity. But an investment gap in Europe’s digital infrastructure threatens this future.
The challenge is a ‘tragedy of the commons’ in the sector. Networks are treated as an infinite resource, creating inefficiencies and waste in their usage.
Europe needs a Framework for Responsible Use of Networks to ensure they are used more efficiently.
Why Europe’s growing digital divide is now a strategic vulnerability
Despite connectivity becoming as fundamental to daily life as electricity or heating, millions remain excluded. Today, 44% of EU citizens lack basic digital skills, and one in five rural households still had no 5G coverage last year. This digital divide is leading to poorer health, worse education outcomes and weaker trust in institutions. This makes it a strategic vulnerability for Europe’s economy, society, and democratic resilience.
Vodafone believes there is still time to turn this around. Vodafone’s report sets out why inclusion matters for everyone, the cost of inaction and evidence from across the continent. There are four key actions that European, national, and regional leaders can take to rebuild growth, cohesion, and trust across Europe.
Why Europe needs pro-investment spectrum policies
To meet the demand for higher data speeds, better quality and more traffic, operators have invested tens of billions of Euros. They’ve upgraded mobile radio technology, rolled out more transmitter sites, and deployed more frequency bands. This places constantly increasing demands on investors.
Europe need a forward-looking, pro-investment spectrum policy. Longer, or perpetual, licences would improve the business case for network deployment. Harmonised rules would prevent national regulators from using spectrum policy to further fragment markets, or to extract value from the sector through artificially high spectrum fees.
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