According to Reuters, according to people familiar with the matter, a majority of EU countries have rejected a plan pushed by Europe’s big telecom operators to have major tech companies such as Google and Amazon pay for the rollout and installation of 5G. At a meeting of EU industry ministers on Thursday (June 1), telecommunications ministers from 18 countries rejected the proposal to impose network fees on tech companies, or said more research was needed on the need for the measure and its possible impact. This echoes comments made last month by BEREC, the European Union’s telecoms regulator.
Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia have all said they want big tech companies to shoulder some of the costs of 5G network rollout and placement, citing their data and content as a large part of network traffic. Their proposal has received support from industry chiefs at the European Commission, but big tech companies such as Google, Apple, META, Netflix, Amazon and Microsoft have all rejected the idea of a tax, saying they have already invested in the digital ecosystem. Most EU telecoms ministers have argued that the move lacks analysis of the impact of network taxes, there is no investment gap, there is a risk that big companies could pass on extra costs to consumers, it could breach EU “net neutrality” rules, which require all users to be treated equally, and could hamper innovation and reduce product quality.
The countries opposed to the Internet tax are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands. Ten countries supported it, including France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Cyprus. Poland, Portugal and Romania took a neutral stance or did not say so, but other sources said they were in favor of Internet fees.
Post time: Jun-07-2023