EU’s Thierry Breton to make Big Tech help pay for telecoms infrastructure

EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton says he will launch a consultation on potential charges.Photo: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

Foo Yun Chee

February 15 2023 02:30 AM

EU industry chief Thierry Breton is poised to launch a consultation on whether Big Tech should bear some telecoms network costs, he said ahead of a telecoms conference taking place in Barcelona from February 27 to March 2.

EU telecoms providers including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia have for years sought to have technology firms foot some infrastructure cost for 5G and broadband.

The telecoms companies say the six largest content providers – Meta, Amazon.com, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google – account for more than half of data internet traffic.

The tech giants say the idea amounts to an internet traffic tax that could undermine Europe’s net neutrality rules to ensure all users are treated equally.

Asked when the consultation would be launched, Mr Breton told Reuters: “Wait for my speech at Barcelona. Yes, I will announce it soon. At Barcelona.”

The consultation is likely to take about 12 weeks before the European Commission will propose legislation that will need to be thrashed out by EU countries and EU lawmakers before it can become law.

Mr Breton said he was confident the process could be wrapped up by the end of the year. “We will have time, yes,” he said.

Announcing the start of the consultation at Barcelona is a strong signal to the telecoms sector of Mr Breton’s backing, a telecoms industry source said. It would be Mr Breton’s first appearance at an event traditionally attended by all major telecoms operators.

Previously, in summer 2022 digital rights activists warned the EU that so-called net-neutrality rules that support an open internet would be undermined if tech giants came to shoulder some of the costs of its telecoms network.

The comments last July from 34 NGOs from 17 countries, which include European Digital Rights, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, Article19 and Electronic Frontier Foundation, were raised in a letter to commissioners.

EU net-neutrality rules mean internet service providers (ISPs) can’t block or throttle traffic to give priority to some services. Some experts fear this commitment might get watered down in a deal.

“Charging content and application providers for the use of internet infrastructure would undermine and conflict with core net-neutrality protections in the European Union,” the groups said.

“The EU’s net-neutrality law allows Europeans to use the bandwidth they buy from their ISPs however they want – whether for Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, or for a small, local site or service,” they said.