LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2014: Europe needs to see structural change in the regulatory environment in order to reap the full benefits of connectivity and the internet of things, Timotheus Hottges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, claimed this morning.

In a keynote speech, the executive called for “a new arrangement between European regulation, local regulation and the global market” as well as harmonisation of data protection laws across Europe.

Noting that in Europe there are 200 operators compared with four in the US and four in China, Hottges said that “we have in Europe a regulatory environment that is not supportive” as the telecoms industry evolves to meet changing consumer connectivity expectations.

In Germany, for example, operators are not allowed to analyse big data: “So all our private data is going out of the country,” he said.

Hottges also cautioned that the development of the new application ecosystems didn’t appear to be taking place as quickly as in Asia and the US.

However, he acknowledged that operators can only make a limited contribution: “Telecom operators don’t have the DNA to develop these kinds of applications,” he said. “In this new world we build the network, but the service is built by someone else.  We have to share monetisation.”

The Telekom head also recognised that OTT players and operators have a responsibility to make it clear how information is used and how new business models are built on that customer data. “The moment something is ‘free’, you are the product,” he said.

And he also observed that there is a disconnect between the fragmentation inherent in many OTT services and customers’ expectations of a connected lifestyle.

At present there is no interconnection between, say, Skype and Viber, or even between Deutsche Telekom services and OTT offerings. “Customers simply don’t care – they want connectivity of all their services,” he said.