The European Union must consider new ways to improve the continent’s networks, even if that means getting big tech companies to pay for it, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said.
(Bloomberg) — The European Union must consider new ways to improve the continent’s networks, even if that means getting big tech companies to pay for it, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said.
“We will need to find a financing model for the huge investment, fairly distributed, that respects and preserves the fundamental elements of our European acquis,” Breton said during a speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
Telecom companies such as Telefonica SA and Orange SA have been pushing the commission to make streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube help pay for 5G and fiber installation. The commission’s consultation, published last week, is the first step toward a formal proposal expected later this year.
Read More: EU Mulls How to Charge Tech Firms Like Netflix For Telecom Work
Breton also highlighted the need to ease cross-border acquisitions for telecom companies and to standardize spectrum offerings in different countries to make it easier for the operators to create continent-wide networks.
The telecom industry has complained about the costs of relentless price competition and restrictions on their ability to merge within markets. Mobile 5G network coverage in Europe lags behind the US, South Korea, Japan and China, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said in a report this month.
Christian Borggreen, senior vice president and head of CCIA Europe, which counts most of the major tech companies as members, said last week that they “fear that the European Commission appears to have already bought into big telcos’ demands for network fees.”
Telecom companies made similar demands at MWC almost a decade ago, when the debate over “net neutrality” was raging, and were unsuccessful. At the time tech companies argued that a requirement to pay more for heavy data use could create a two-tiered internet that would restrict access to some sites.
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