Cisco Director of Government Affairs: EU Digital Networks Act Should Not Extend Telecommunications Obligations to Enterprise Digital Services
Diane Mievis, Cisco’s Global Director of Policy and Government Affairs, argues in an article that the EU Digital Networks Act must clearly distinguish between telecommunications infrastructure and the digital services running on top of it. She advocates shifting funding incentives from maintaining stability toward high-capacity AI infrastructure such as fiber optics, optical transport, and edge computing, while ensuring that unlicensed spectrum needs like Wi-Fi are addressed in parallel with 6G development.
The EU Digital Networks Act (DNA) is currently still in the legislative process—the European Commission has proposed a draft bill, and Michał Kobosko, the rapporteur for the European Parliament, is drafting the report. During the review of the bill, Diane Mievis, Cisco’s Global Director of Policy and Government Affairs, published a policy position article offering three specific regulatory recommendations.
Her core argument is that the DNA must clearly distinguish between telecommunications infrastructure and the digital services that run over it. She contends that policymakers should not extend obligations originally designed for telecom networks to these services simply because enterprise applications, content delivery services, or AI rely on network connectivity. Doing so risks increasing compliance costs without delivering the expected benefits to users.
To illustrate why this distinction matters, she provides a concrete example: a hospital using Webex for video consultations, which relies on both internet connectivity and collaboration applications. The connectivity provider delivers network access, while Webex enables the consultation through video, messaging, and document sharing. She argues that these are complementary functions, and the obligations imposed on each provider should reflect the actual service they deliver.
This argument relates to AI infrastructure in that Kobosko’s report notes that connectivity, computing, and AI are no longer independent domains but form a single integrated ecosystem. Mievis believes this means Europe’s AI ambitions require more than just network access; they also require secure data center connectivity and high-capacity wireless infrastructure. However, she argues that the current proposal and amendments fail to provide the practical investment incentives needed to move from ambition to deployment—funding driven solely by resilience is insufficient, as resilience does not equal performance. AI requires massive throughput and ultra-low latency to transfer vast datasets between compute nodes and the edge, so funding must shift from merely maintaining stability to incentivizing high-capacity infrastructure such as fiber optics, optical transport, and edge computing.