At The Lisbon Conference: Europe and Transatlantic Relations, Ana Figueiredo, CEO of MEO, laid out a bold strategic direction for the Portuguese telecom giant. Her message was clear: artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and future competitiveness depend on robust, secure, and scalable infrastructure — and Europe isn’t moving fast enough.
“We need a single market in Europe,” she stressed, pointing to the fragmentation of the EU telecom sector. While the U.S. operates with four major telecom providers, Europe is split between nearly 50 — a lack of scale that limits profitability, investment, and ultimately innovation. “We want ten regional champions. But for that, we need bold ambition and to act quickly,” she urged, aligning with Enrico Letta’s recent report on European competitiveness.
MEO, Figueiredo said, is reorienting toward a digital-first model, with a focus on AI-readiness and automation. This shift reflects a stark reality: “Two-thirds of all network traffic is no longer people talking to people — it’s machines talking to machines.” That machine-to-machine traffic, fueled by AI, IoT, and edge computing, is expected to skyrocket, requiring stronger, smarter networks.
“AI, digital education, quantification — they don’t happen without telecoms,” she noted. “Without us, none of this works.”
On investment and scale, Figueiredo pointed to a worrying disparity: U.S. telecoms invest twice as much as their European counterparts, largely because they operate at greater scale. “If we don’t have scale, I can’t promise returns to investors.” And in a world where digital infrastructure is a foundation for green energy, AI, and advanced computing, this underinvestment is an existential risk.
Figueiredo also highlighted the strategic role of Portugal in this transformation. Despite its small size, the country boasts some of the best connectivity in Europe, ranking in the top five. MEO is capitalizing on this advantage through export-oriented innovation — including optical equipment from its R&D centers — and diversifying into global markets.
In closing, the CEO emphasized the need for visionary leadership in unpredictable times. “CEOs must design strategies, assess risks, identify strengths and weaknesses, and focus only on what we can control,” she concluded.
Bottom line? If Europe — and companies like MEO — want to stay competitive in a world powered by AI and digital ecosystems, scale, resilience, and speed are no longer optional — they’re survival.
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