Google Cautions That EU Plans To Make Tech Behemoths Pay For Network Infrastructure Are An Outmoded Concept.

Google has informed the European Union (EU) that proposals for giant tech firms to make monetary contributions to cellular and broadband deployments have been a ‘decade-old concept’ that didn’t mirror the very fact the corporate already invested tens of millions in infrastructure

Matt Brittin, president of EMEA enterprise & operations at Google, informed an occasion organised by telecoms group ETNO that Google was investing important sums in communications infrastructure – together with subsea cables and information centres – and that it carried its site visitors for ’99% of the best way’.

He argued that any transfer by the EU to make tech corporations pay might enhance prices for customers and threaten the rules of the open web.

Fibre funding

“These arguments are just like these we heard 10 or extra years in the past and we have now not seen new information that adjustments the scenario,” Reuters quotes him as saying.

The telecoms business is more and more pissed off that firms resembling Google, Meta, Netflix, and others profit considerably from their community investments whereas it’s operators who’re pressured to make sure there may be sufficient capacity to fulfil demand.

Including gas to the flames is the truth that many of those firms actively compete with the communications business, affecting revenues, however, will not be topic to the identical degree of regulation. Without intervention, they argue, capital-intensive community builds will lack ample return on funding to be engaging.

The EU, which sees fibre and 5G as important elements of its social and financial agenda, seems to agree the present scenario is unsustainable and has put ahead the concept that tech corporations that profit from this infrastructure ought to assist pay for it.

Nonetheless, forward of any potential laws, the EU has invited each side of the argument to state their case. Earlier than Google’s feedback, the chief executives of 13 main telecoms corporations, together with BT and Vodafone, signed a letter urging to the EU to take motion.

However large tech might have an unlikely ally within the type of cellular digital community operators (MVNOs) who argue they are going to be a collateral injury of any such laws.

Business physique MVNO Europe says any laws wouldn’t simply topic its members be topic to extra prices, the funds they might pay could be used to strengthen the place of incumbent operators, making it an extra problem to compete. This might not solely affect the worth, however, would additionally make it unfeasible for a lot of areas of interest MVNOs to supply their providers.

By way of Reuters.