Government and industry need to “step forward” and work together on a new vision for the digital economy, according to Joakim Reiter, group external affairs director, Vodafone.
Speaking in the opening session of Cable Congress, Reiter said that Europe’s starting point was not great with the continents share of the worldwide digital market sitting at just 4%, way behind the United States and China.
However, he said there was an opportunity for Europe to position itself as a global leader.
“At Vodafone, and actually all of us, we’re becoming critical of national infrastructure providers… You simply can’t drive digital Ferraris on old copper roads. To achieve that, Europe needs to ‘turbo charge’ its investment. Unfortunately, there is a perception in Brussels that they have fixed the road, it’s not true.”
Reiter believes the solution needs to include more sharing of capacity and better management of the spectrum, and still too much red tape. “Industrial policies that allow European companies to gain scale, with an emphasis on incentivising business, rather than micromanaging.”
And a course a call for the incumbents for being allowed to simply sit on their assets.
Europe, says Reiter, needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps.
