Paris-Based Orange CEO Said Telecoms Are Undervalued Backbone of Digital Economy
Heydemann said AI-generated content has already surpassed human-generated content in volume.
BARCELONA, March 7, 2026 — European telecommunications companies are capturing a fraction of the value they create, Orange's chief executive said Tuesday at Mobile World Congress, describing an industry that runs the backbone of the global digital economy while collecting less than 5 percent of its worth.
Christel Heydemann, chief executive of Orange, the Paris-based multinational telecommunications operator, said European carriers capture less than $1.5 trillion in a sector worth more than $30 trillion, growing at below 3 percent annually.
When networks fail or digital services are compromised, she said, payments stop, hospitals delay treatments, public services stall and factories go offline.
Heydemann said the industry set a world record in 2025, transmitting one petabyte of data, the equivalent of “all Netflix traffic across Europe” in under one second on a single fiber connection. The achievement illustrates the gap between what telecoms deliver and what they capture in economic value.
She said AI-generated content has already surpassed human-generated content in volume, accelerating concerns about misinformation, fraud and loss of institutional control. Deepfakes are easy to produce, data breaches are daily occurrences and fraud can be generated on demand, she said, arguing that the pace of AI development has outrun the pace of trust-building across the industry.
Heydemann said agentic AI, software systems capable of taking autonomous actions without human intervention, will increase demand for faster and more resilient networks. Telecoms are uniquely positioned to provide the trusted infrastructure that AI-powered economies require, she said, combining investment in fiber, fifth-generation wireless networks and cybersecurity with regulatory experience that technology platforms lack.
She directed her sharpest remarks at European policymakers, saying the continent cannot remain competitive in an AI-driven economy without simplifying regulation, harmonizing frameworks across member states and creating sustainable investment conditions. The strategic direction is identified at the European level, Heydemann said, but has not been translated into execution.
Her remarks came as the European Commission separately outlined legislation aimed at addressing those gaps. Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice president for technology sovereignty, earlier touted the proposed Digital Networks Act as a measure designed to replace nationally fragmented telecom rules with a single regulatory framework and harmonize spectrum management across member states.
"In the age of AI, trust itself becomes infrastructure," Heydemann said. "Telecom operators have a historic opportunity and a responsibility not just to be technology leaders, but to be leaders in trusted technology."
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