Europe’s operators have failed to make much progress so far…
Italy’s Minister for Industry, Adolfo Urso, this week told media in Milan that the Italian government is pushing for ‘fair share’ contributions from Big Techcos to telecom network operators. According to a report from Reuters, he
Asked about the potential of major streaming companies and cloud players contributing to telco capital expenditure (capex) budgets, Uros said, “It’s important that we go in this direction,” according to Reuters. “It makes good sense for Big Tech to contribute to the workload that is then entrusted to the large telecommunications networks.”
Telecom Italia (TIM), along with many other operators in Europe is putting pressure on the European Commission (EC) to impose rules that would oblige the handful of companies that generate a large proportion of internet traffic to contribute to the cost of constantly increasing the capacity and upgrading the technology in their networks. The Big Techco include Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and Netflix.
The fair-share argument has been around for years, but has gained more traction in the last two years, where many operators have used MWC as a campaign platform and back by the GSMA and ETNO, and former Commissioner Thierry Breton.
In September, a report by Mario Draghi, The future of European competitiveness, recommended that the Commission should introduce radical new rules. Draghi is Italy’s former Prime Minister and former Governor of the European Central Bank. He urged the Commission to allow consolidation of telcos in Europe and to support a fair-share policy.
How influential the new paper proves to be with the new college of Commissioners remains to be seen. Certainly it has plenty of opponents within and without Europe, including the US government.