Tech Giants Should Contribute to EU Telecom Network Costs

France, Italy, and Spain are increasing pressure on the European Commission to adopt regulations that would compel large tech companies to partially fund telecommunications infrastructure in the bloc.

For the first time, the governments of these three countries have expressed a unified stance on this issue.

European regulators announced in May that they are considering whether tech giants like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, and Netflix should bear part of the costs of upgrading the telecommunications network.

In a joint document, a copy of which was available to Reuters, the governments of the mentioned countries highlight that the six largest content providers account for about 55 percent of internet traffic.

“This creates specific costs for European telecommunications operators in terms of capacity, at a time when they are already heavily investing in the most expensive parts of fifth-generation and optical networks,” the document states.

It calls for European telecommunications networks and large internet content providers to pay fairly distributed network costs. “We call for a legislative proposal that ensures all market players contribute to the costs of digital infrastructure,” the document states.

According to research published by the telecommunications lobbying group ETNO earlier this year, an annual contribution of 20 billion euros from tech giants to cover network costs could provide a boost to the EU economy of 72 billion euros.

However, digital rights activists have warned that forcing large tech companies to pay for network upgrades could jeopardize EU rules on telecommunications network neutrality, which they fear could be weakened in a deal with tech giants in exchange for help in funding the telecommunications network.

Any legislative proposal should “ensure fairness among users in accordance with network neutrality rules, which is a fundamental principle that we absolutely must preserve,” the joint document of the three governments states.