The European Union’s AI Act, which is based on a horizontal approach and categorizes AI systems based on risk, is expected to have a significant impact on the telecommunications industry. However, the broad definition of AI in the Act may hinder future development and create risks for the established practices. The involvement of all European and global telecommunications stakeholders is crucial to avoid fragmentation of the global market and the penalization of European actors and users. The AI Act’s horizontal approach must be tempered to include sector-specific provisions, particularly for telecommunications. Examples of potential issues include the classification of adaptive filtering and prediction algorithms as well as network resource allocation techniques as high-risk AI systems. The development of harmonized standards supporting the EU AI Act is underway, but progress is slow, and the exclusion of ETSI, a key telecommunications standardization body, raises concerns. The debate on democratic participation and sovereignty in European standardization is ongoing, and it interferes with an effective standardization process. Eventually, delays in producing standards may lead to an unclear regulatory situation, hindering the European telecommunications sector.