What did BEREC conclude about EU telco mergers?

BEREC, the body representing EU member states' communications regulators, has found that consolidation among European telcos does not reliably deliver lower prices or improved services for consumers. In a report published this week, the regulator concluded that "the available evidence does not show that greater scale automatically leads to more investment, innovation or competitiveness."

The report added a sharper finding for merger-watchers: "evidence from mergers indicates that prices increase in the short to medium term following the mergers, even with remedies in place."

That conclusion lands as a counterweight to renewed calls inside the EU for cross-border tie-ups. Former ECB president Mario Draghi has separately argued for consolidation to shore up the bloc's industrial competitiveness. BEREC's evidence-based response: scale up does not equal better outcomes for retail customers.

How do EU connectivity prices compare globally?

EU consumers already benefit from some of the lowest connectivity prices among developed countries, the report noted, significantly below prices charged in South Korea or the US. Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain rank among the world's top performers on fixed broadband.

The BEREC findings matter because they shape the regulatory appetite for future in-market mergers and for state-aid-fuelled network combinations. They also complicate the case for pan-European operators that would, in theory, compete with US hyperscalers but, in practice, concentrate pricing power.

What other EMEA moves made headlines?

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority set a tight deadline for feedback on BT's takeover of broadband provider TalkTalk. Submissions close on Friday. The CMA must deliver its own report on the deal to the UK government by 19 October, including an assessment of whether the transaction has created a "relevant merger situation" under the Enterprise Act 2002. BT rival Virgin Media O2 has already called the deal "a stitch up masked as a rescue deal in the public interest." BT agreed to buy TalkTalk's consumer broadband base for £400 million in a deal framed around continuity of service.

• Openreach, BT's semi-autonomous network access unit, picked Ciena's Waveserver coherent optical platform to scale its wholesale high-capacity services. The gear carries 400G and 800G client traffic over 1.6 Tbit/s wavelengths, with a 2RU chassis hosting up to 32 × 400G services.
• Orange Business secured SecNumCloud qualification from France's national cybersecurity agency ANSSI, the country's top cloud security mark, clearing the operator to process particularly sensitive data on its cloud stack.
• UAE operator Du clocked download speeds above 3.5 Gbit/s on a Huawei-built 5G Advanced indoor network at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. The deployment uses more than 150 antennas and three-band carrier aggregation combining 300 MHz on a single antenna. Du claims the setup delivers more than 50% higher throughput than 5G non-standalone performance, a vendor-aligned figure that reflects lab conditions rather than average user experience.
• Hull-based fixed-line operator KCOM launched an eSIM service for consumers and businesses, with travel add-ons covering 200 listed countries and up to 20 GB of extra data for 30 days.
• Ooredoo's OFN signed a dark fibre agreement with iQ Networks to build an integrated subsea and terrestrial corridor through Iraq towards Turkey and Europe. The deal complements a separate OFN agreement with the Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company for the Fibre in Gulf (FIG) subsea cable system.
• In London, mobile operator O2 extended its naming-rights deal for The O2 arena until 2038 in a contract worth £200 million (US$264 million), according to the Guardian. The venue, built on the site of the Millennium Dome, has hosted more than 6,800 events and welcomed over 100 million visitors since opening in 2007.

What's next for EU telecom policy?

The BEREC report lands ahead of further EU-level debate on industrial consolidation and network investment, with operators and member states expected to weigh the regulator's evidence against Draghi's competitiveness argument through the autumn consultations.