The annual Digital Agenda Scoreboard paints a pragmatic picture of the European Union’s digital landscape: strong demand for digital services and devices is being held back by insufficient investment in infrastructure and outdated policy approaches.
Neelie Kroes, then Vice President of the European Commission, warned that Europe is “shooting itself in the foot” by underfunding critical telecommunications networks and urged governments and industry to increase investment in broadband and mobile infrastructure. She argued that Europeans are eager to adopt new digital technologies and enjoy more online choices, but public policy and business practices are failing to keep pace with that demand.
Kroes highlighted that clinging to 20th-century regulatory mindsets and legacy business models is damaging Europe’s competitiveness and economic prospects. In her view, a failure to embrace faster internet and richer online content risks leaving European consumers and businesses behind as global competitors press ahead.
The Commission singled out mobile operators in its critique, renewing long-standing objections to high roaming prices. The report reiterated that many telecom companies still levy steep fees on customers who use their mobile devices abroad, and it emphasized the discrepancy between domestic and roaming rates. On average, the scoreboard found consumers pay roughly three and a half times their national rate for roaming calls, a figure the Commission used to argue for stronger regulatory action.
Despite these concerns, the scoreboard also highlighted several positive trends. One of the most notable gains was in mobile broadband adoption: over the past year mobile subscriptions rose sharply, increasing by around 62% to reach approximately 217 million subscriptions across the EU. That surge in mobile connections reflects growing consumer appetite for on-the-move access to internet services and rich media.
Investment in radio spectrum allocation and the opening of key frequency bands are among the steps taken by member states to meet this demand. The report noted that seven EU countries — Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia, Greece, Malta, Spain and Portugal — have opened the 900–1800 MHz bands to support mobile services, easing constraints on capacity and potentially improving coverage and service quality for users.
These changes in spectrum policy illustrate how targeted regulatory action can help unlock capacity for mobile networks, encourage competition among operators, and support new services that require reliable high-speed mobile connections. At the same time, the report makes clear that these measures need to be accompanied by broader infrastructure investment and regulatory reform in order to fully realize the benefits.
Key challenges remain. Continued underinvestment in fixed broadband infrastructure limits the speeds and quality of home and business connections in many parts of Europe. Legacy business models and fragmented national regulations can slow the rollout of next-generation networks and discourage the cross-border services that would make the single market more dynamic. Consumers still face inconsistent pricing and service levels across member states, and the transition to more modern regulatory frameworks is uneven.
Policymakers and industry stakeholders face a choice: accelerate investment and regulatory modernization to support the digital economy, or risk losing ground to global competitors that are rapidly expanding both network capacity and digital services. The Digital Agenda Scoreboard implies that success will require coordinated action — including clearer incentives for infrastructure investment, harmonized spectrum management, and measures to curb excessive roaming charges — so that Europe can capitalize on strong consumer demand for digital technologies.
Questions raised by the report are practical and urgent: are telecom operators simply slow to adapt, or are regulatory gaps enabling excessively high consumer prices? Will continued reforms and investment be sufficient to resolve persistent issues like roaming costs and patchy broadband coverage? The scoreboard suggests progress is possible, but it will depend on commitments from both industry and governments to modernize networks and policies for a truly digital-first Europe.