Brussels, BELGIUM – Today, the European Commission presented an exploratory consultation on possible network fees as part of its new connectivity package. If big EU telecom operators get their way, tech firms would be forced to pay network fees whenever they respond to users’ requests for internet data.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) welcomes the ambition to speed up the deployment of gigabit connectivity across the EU. Indeed, the biggest leap in improving infrastructure rollout can be made by removing red tape and addressing Europe’s shortage of civil engineering capacity.
The questionnaire on network fees, however, already appears to accept the false “fair share” premise pushed by big telcos. The questions are seemingly designed to justify this idea that popular streaming and cloud services should be mandated by the EU to subsidise telecom operators.
Yet apart from the biggest telecom operators campaigning for EU network fees, all other relevant stakeholders – from civil society to regulators and academia – have already firmly rejected that idea.
Nevertheless, most consultation questions can only be answered by tech firms and telcos, thus excluding most stakeholders. CCIA Europe therefore urges the Commission to adopt a more inclusive approach, and give equal weight to the concerns voiced by consumer groups, digital rights NGOs, Internet exchanges, and others – including warnings about the detrimental impact of network fees on consumers and Net Neutrality.
Going forward, CCIA Europe hopes the Commission will take an evidence-based approach, especially given that a similar regulatory experiment has already failed in South Korea.
Particular attention should be paid to the recent findings of the Body of European Telecom Regulators (BEREC), which “found no evidence that such mechanism [for network fees] is justified” and concluded that fees “could present various risks for the internet ecosystem.”
The following can be attributed to Senior Vice President and Head of CCIA Europe, Christian Borggreen:
“We welcome that the public is finally being consulted but fear that the European Commission has already bought into big telcos’ demands for network fees. It is crucial that all stakeholders have the opportunity to be heard equally. The message from regulators, consumer groups, civil society, and academics could not be clearer: introducing network fees is a terrible idea.”
“Europeans already pay telecom operators for internet access, they should not have to pay telcos a second time through pricier streaming and cloud services. Putting a fee on internet traffic would hurt European consumers and undermine the open Internet by treating data differently.”
“What we hear from big telecom CEOs is just old wine in new bottles. Nothing has changed since this idea was last rejected by Europe a decade ago. In fact, network fees already failed in the only country that has tested it. We encourage the Commission to be transparent in its evidence-gathering and analysis, and ultimately to reject this misguided idea once and for all.”