Telecom companies are asking tech companies to pay

In Europe there is resentment against the collection of data by large Internet companies from the USA. European telecommunications companies therefore want to force large tech companies to pay more for the use and expansion of network infrastructure. This emerges from a letter quoted by the Financial Times on Monday that the heads of 20 European telecom companies sent to Brussels.

“A fair and appropriate contribution from the largest data producers to the costs of network infrastructure should form the basis of a new approach,” it says. The letter is addressed to the European Commission and members of the European Parliament. The letter was signed by, among others, Tim Hoettges, head of Deutsche Telekom, as well as the leaders of Vodafone, Telia and the BT Group.

In your opinion, Google, Netflix and Co benefit most from the infrastructure and pay “almost nothing” for it. As a counterexample, the signatories of the letter cite cloud providers who ask their customers to pay for the forwarding of data volumes. The industry’s demand is not new – but the time pressure to achieve something before the European elections in 2024 is growing.

According to company bosses, data traffic from “a handful” of large technology companies has increased by an average of 20 to 30 percent in recent years. In their opinion, this development will continue. However, it is unlikely that it will lead to a corresponding return on investment.

200 billion euros in investments

At the same time, high investments are necessary: ​​According to the Commission’s estimates, around 200 billion euros will have to be invested in order to ensure access to the 5G mobile communications standard and full gigabit coverage everywhere in the EU by 2030. The company bosses are therefore calling on the regulatory authorities to help secure future investments and to revise regulations.

A Commission spokesman said the agency had recently looked at the issue of a “fair contribution” to network costs: “This is a complex issue and any decision should be made based on an understanding of the facts and figures.”

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