Google Calls Decade-Old Demand for Shared Network Costs Bad for Consumers

Alphabet unit Google on Monday rebuffed a push by European telecoms operators to get Big Tech to assist fund community prices, saying it was a 10-year-old concept that was dangerous for shoppers and that the corporate was already investing thousands and thousands in Internet infrastructure.

The feedback by Matt Brittin, president of EMEA enterprise & operations at Google, come because the European Commission mentioned it could search suggestions from the telecoms and tech industries on the difficulty within the coming months earlier than making any legislative proposal.

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and different massive operators have lengthy complained about tech rivals freeriding on their networks, saying that they use an enormous a part of web visitors and will contribute financially.

The concept, floated greater than 10 years in the past, may disrupt Europe’s web neutrality or open web entry, Brittin mentioned.

“Introducing a ‘sender pays’ principle is not a new idea, and would upend many of the principles of the open Internet,” he mentioned based on the textual content of a speech to be delivered at a convention organised by telecoms lobbying group ETNO.

“These arguments are similar to those we heard 10 or more years ago and we have not seen new data that changes the situation.”

It “could have a negative impact on consumers, especially at a time of price increases,” Brittin mentioned, citing a report by pan-European shopper group BEUC outlining such issues.

He mentioned Google, proprietor of YouTube, has performed its half to make it extra environment friendly for telecoms suppliers by carrying visitors 99 p.c of the way in which and investing thousands and thousands of euros to take action.

“In 2021, we invested over 23 billion euros in capital expenditure – much of which is infrastructure,” Brittin mentioned.

These embody six giant information centres in Europe, 20 subsea cables globally, with 5 in Europe, and caches to retailer digital content material inside native networks in 20 areas in Europe.

© Thomson Reuters 2022


#Google #Calls #DecadeOld #Demand #Shared #Network #Costs #Bad #Consumers