United Group CEO Outlines Priorities for European Digital Connectivity

United Group CEO Stan Miller joined senior European policymakers and industry leaders at the FT Connect Europe Forum 2026, participating in the opening panel titled “Competitiveness and the new connectivity rulebook.” Hosted by the Financial Times in partnership with Connect Europe, the annual forum serves as a primary venue for telecommunications and technology leaders to discuss investment, innovation, and Europe’s digital trajectory.

With negotiations currently underway between the European Parliament and the Council, participants analyzed the proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) and its capacity to drive infrastructure investment. The discussion also addressed the ongoing challenge of reducing market fragmentation across the single market, a topic further explored in closed-door sessions with Brussels officials.

During the panel, Miller delineated four strategic priorities for the Act:

• Spectrum Management: Miller advocated for the indefinite award of spectrum licenses to provide operators with the long-term certainty required to earn a return on infrastructure investment. He characterized spectrum as a scarce public resource whose value is realized only upon deployment. Consequently, he argued that Europe should reward those who actively build networks and prohibit "frequency squatting" by entities holding spectrum without utilizing it.
• Technology Neutrality: The CEO called for connectivity objectives to be defined by the quality of service (QoS) required by consumers, allowing operators to select the most cost-efficient technology for delivery. He noted that achieving nationwide connectivity almost always requires a mix of technologies, with fixed wireless or satellite often serving as the optimal solution for isolated rural regions.
• Consolidation and Investment Case: Miller distinguished between the two facets of the telecom industry: infrastructure and commercial operations. He noted that infrastructure is highly capital-intensive and requires regulatory certainty—such as lifetime licenses—to ensure a positive return on equity. He argued that effective network investment, combined with market consolidation under revised merger guidelines, is essential to strengthening the investment case for European networks.
• Simplicity and Flexibility: Finally, Miller urged for a framework that allows operators to utilize network slicing to optimize technology use without restrictive regulation. This flexibility is critical for supporting 5G standalone networks, which facilitate defense, drone detection, and smart grids. He argued that a simple, predictable framework applied consistently across the single market would replace case-by-case national assessments and provide the certainty needed to bring specialized services, such as digital health and connected vehicles, to market.

“The markets in which we operate are very diverse, spanning cities, coastlines, and mountains. I was pleased to emphasize to policymakers that operators require the autonomy to select how they connect populations, governed by rules applied consistently across the Union,” Miller stated.