17th APDC Congress – Director General of Telefónica says that consolidation is essential in the national market

Sapo opens laboratory at the University of Aveiro

António Viana Baptista, director general of Telefónica Spain, said today that there is no room in the Portuguese market for the current number of operators. “There is no market for so many operators. Some consolidation is going to have to happen ”, defended the official, remembering that Europe will have to invest over the next four years in the order of 100 billion euros in fiber, if it wants to maintain its technological leadership.

Due to fragmentation, the Portuguese telecommunications market will not attract the level of investment necessary to enter the fiber era, he argues. Europe itself, according to the same perspective, must fulfill this investment effort so as not to be overtaken by regions such as Asia or the United States in the so-called next generation networks.

The question of next generation networks should, for António Viana Baptista, be a priority for European regulators today, which he considers too focused on price issues. «Most regulators are concerned with the lower price of services today and less concerned with the viability of investments that tomorrow will guarantee new offers», he defends.

The manager points to the review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications, recently presented by the European Commission, as an example of a lack of vision regarding the issue of Next Generation Networks, since the way Europe intends to make the leap towards this type of infrastructure structure is an unanswered question in the ongoing review.

AntĂłnio Viana Baptista also underlined in the presentation the opportunity for telecommunications operators, created by the increasing demand for communications services, a phenomenon that reacts to the increasing available bandwidth and the new services supported there.

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