Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Manuel Kohnstamm has travelled to the ICC – a major telecoms forum in Miami – to give a clear message to regulators: the GIGAWorld is coming, and we all need to pull together to make it happen.

In a punchy speech, Kohnstamm set out Liberty Global’s astonishing progress in realising the GIGAWorld vision so far: connecting 50 million homes across Europe to high-speed, resilient, powerful networks; planning to reach millions more in the coming years; helping people to communicate, work and play with far greater ease and speed.

Kohnstamm went on to highlight the size of the prize if the GIGAWorld is realised: from accelerating digital innovation, to propelling major industries such as the healthcare sector, to enabling public authorities, energy and transport companies to built the smart cities of tomorrow.

In short, global progress depends on the right infrastructure being in place – which means rolling out ‘GIGAReady’ networks across the world.

Along with the positive vision came a warning to regulators. Kohnstamm argued that GIGAWorld can only happen with significant investment, which in turn depends on regulation that is light touch and predictable: “above all, regulation that gives the freedom and certainty that digital infrastructure players need to invest, innovate and empower.”

Ultimately, he argued, the current regulatory system has worked well for 15 years, driving “unprecedented waves of competition and investment from players such as Liberty Global”.

The message to regulators was clear: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – and together let’s raise our sights to building the GIGAWorld.