European Union industry chief Thierry Breton on Monday said he was not taking sides in a clash between Big Tech and European telecommunications operators over who should fund the rollout of 5G and broadband as the world’s largest telecoms conference opened in Barcelona.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Breton defended a 12-week consultation launched last week which could require Big Tech to shoulder more of the costs.
“For me, the real challenge is to make sure that by 2030 our fellow citizens and business on our streets across the EU – including here in Barcelona – have access to fast, reliable and data-intense gigabit connectivity,” he said.
Representatives from tech firms including Google, Meta Platforms and Netflix attending the MWC are expected to push back against the idea.
More than 80 000 people, including tech executives, innovators and regulators, were expected to attend the event where new product launches will also take the spotlight.
Breton spoke at an opening event where Telefónica CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete López and Orange CEO Christel Heydemann also participated. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia have been actively lobbying for Big Tech to pay the fees.
“This is the time to collaborate between telcos and Big Tech,” said Alvarez-Pallete. “Collaborating means everybody contributing with a fair share of the effort.”
Orange’s Heydemann deemed the EU consultation a “first step” to address what she called an “unbalanced situation”, while stressing she was not calling to change Europe’s network neutrality principle nor pushing for a new tax mechanism.
SPNP
“We call for a new European framework which would bring a fair contribution of large online traffic generators to connectivity requirements,” she said.
The Dutch government on Monday warned against imposing an Internet toll on tech companies, becoming the first EU government to criticise Breton’s consultation. It said such a move may breach net neutrality rules and lead to price hikes for Europeans.
Content providers such as Netflix, which has arranged for its co-CEO, Greg Peters, to meet with Breton at the Barcelona conference, argue their firms already invest heavily in infrastructure. They say that paying additional fees will detract from investment in products that benefit consumers.
GSMA, an association representing more than 750 mobile operators and the organising body behind MWC, has been at the forefront of the debate.
“We can really see that this is not [about] neutrality. We are not prioritising. We are not throttling,” said GSMA director-general Mats Granryd. “So, the arguments that normally are brought forward when it comes to net neutrality, we don’t really see that. But we will be more than happy to have that discussion.”
Critics of the fair share or “SPNP” (sending party network pays) model have warned the so-called “traffic tax” could lead content-driven platforms to route their services via Internet service providers outside the EU.
“These new regulations would violate net neutrality provisions and fragment the Internet, hurting European consumers and economies,” said David Frautschy, director at the Internet Society, a US nonprofit advocacy group. “The stakes are too high to let telecoms operators get their way.”
Regulations will be difficult to implement and enforce, said Shahid Ahmed, executive vice president at NTT and an adviser to the US Federal Communications Commission. — Supantha Mukherjee, Martin Coulter and Joan Faus, with Foo Yun Chee, (c) 2023 Reuters
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