“Consumer welfare (…) has to be at the forefront of our discussion. (…) it is essential to ensure (…) good quality and accessible services for citizens. By prioritising consumer welfare, we can build trust and confidence in the digital economy.”

– Council | Petra Fakó – Incoming Hungarian Council Presidency

“If telecoms policy’s main focus is on supply-side targets and specific technologies (…) we could end up with a policy that is (…) disconnected from demand and (…) from what customers want, and delivers inefficient outcomes for citizens, businesses and governments.“

– Space | Jordi Casanova – Amazon

“Once you start seriously debating the introduction of an additional funding mechanism, investors, that could be both governments and private investors, may hold out given the prospect of universal service funding. You might actually get less investment or delayed investment.”

– Economist | Brian Williamson – Communications Chambers

“The dispute resolution mechanism[:] (…) it’s the wrong name for it (…) the desire of it is to be more a dispute creation mechanism. (…) I don’t think that’d be an efficient use of anyone’s time and resources.“

– Content | Phillip Malloch – Meta

“We appreciate the [EC] mentioned the possibility of a dispute mechanism and implicitly suggested (…) an obligation for the players in the Internet value chain to negotiate. (…) We think this mechanism (…) should be part of the legislative proposal that results from this consultation.“

– Mobile | Lotte Abildgaard – GSMA

“Regulatory objectives (…) shouldn’t be dictating industrial policy [or] (…) be used as an instrument to support or pick champions (…) but are there to make sure the market works and (…) to fill in the gaps where the market cannot provide [connectivity] for those most vulnerable.“

– Consumers | Cláudio Teixeira – BEUC

“The [EC’s] list of markets susceptible to ex-ante regulation (…) diminished (…) from 18 to 2. (…) NRAs are steadily deregulating the markets (…) We reject the notion that deregulation should be imposed through a political decision.“

– Alternative | Pinar Serdengecti – ecta

“This conversation is very much happening in silos (…) Europe will be shutting itself off possible other ways to address connectivity gaps simply because it’s approaching it the way it is  (…) and (…) this whole idea of network fees is getting elevated into a foreign policy thing.“

– Academia | Konstantinos Komaitis – Atlantic Council