informationcommumication
European Unions (EU) telecoms regulators’ group BEREC on Friday warned the European Commission to not propose the legislation pushed by the sector to get Big Tech’s help to pay for the rollout of 5G and broadband, saying it did not see a competition problem or a market failure. The comments from The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) to the European Commission which is now investigating the issue now seems to underscore the high-stakes battle between Big Tech and Europe’s major telecoms operators.
“There is no evidence of a competition problem or a market failure to the detriment of end-users regarding IP-interconnection,” the group concluded. Echoing Big Tech’s arguments, BEREC said it has its doubts about a mandatory network fee levied on the companies. “It is questionable that mandatory payments from CAPs (content and application providers) to ISPs (internet service providers) would lead to member states meeting the connectivity targets,” BEREC said. “On the contrary, it is rather likely that ISPs in already well supplied areas would benefit the most.” It said a compulsory fee may be regarded as disadvantage by smaller telecoms operators with less economies of scale and bargaining power, while other telecoms companies with their own streaming or cloud services may discriminate and unfairly promote these services.
A fee akin to this may also lead to price hikes for consumers, disincentivize Big Tech from investments and breach EU net neutrality rules, BEREC said. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia have been lobbying for Big Tech to shoulder some of the network costs. Alphabet’s Google, Apple, Meta Platforms, Netflix, Amazon.com and Microsoft, which telcos say consist of more than half of data internet traffic, have rejected the proposal.