BRUSSELS: Alphabet(GOOGL.O) unit Google on Monday rebuffed a drive by European telecoms drivers to get Big Tech to help fund network costs, saying it was a 10-time-old idea that was bad for consumers and that the company was formerly investing millions in internet structure.
The commentary by Matt Brittin, chairman of EMEA business & operations at Google, come as the European Commission said it would seek feedback from the telecoms and tech diligence on the issue in the coming months before making any legislative offer.
Deutsche Telekom(DTEGn.DE), Orange(ORAN.PA), Telefonica(TEF.MC) and other big drivers have long complained about tech rivals freeriding on their networks, saying that they use a huge part of internet business and should contribute financially.
The idea, floated further than 10 times agone, could disrupt Europe’s net impartiality or open internet access, Brittin said.
“Introducing a ‘sender pays ‘principle isn’t a new idea, and would upend numerous of the principles of the open internet,” he said according to the textbook of a speech to be delivered at a conference organised by telecoms lobbying group ETNO.
“These arguments are analogous to those we heard 10 or further times agone and we haven’t seen new data that changes the situation.”
It “could have a negative impact on consumers, especially at a time of price increases,” Brittin said, citing a report bypan-European consumer group BEUC outlining similar enterprises.
He said Google, proprietor of YouTube, has done its part to make it more effective for telecoms providers by carrying business 99 of the way and investing millions of euros to do so.
“In 2021, we invested over 23 billion euros in capital expenditure- important of which is structure,” Brittin said.
These include six large data centres in Europe, 20 subsea lines encyclopedically, with five in Europe, and caches to store digital content within original networks in 20 locales in Europe
