Europe’s digital chief Margarethe Vestager has hinted at the possibility that top tech companies could contribute to the cost of Europe’s telecommunications network.
Vestager’s statement follows a study published on Monday by telecommunications lobby group ETNO, which found that Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix accounted for more than 56% of all global data traffic in 2021.
To ease the burden on European telecommunications companies, the group called for a $21 billion annual contribution from the tech giants, which would boost the EU economy by $73 billion.
“I think there is an issue that we need to consider with a lot of focus, and that is the issue of fair contribution to telecommunication networks. Because we see that there are players who generate a lot of traffic, that then enables their business but who have not been contributing actually to enable that traffic. They have not been contributing to enabling investments in the rollout of connectivity. And we are in the process of getting a thorough understanding of how could that be enabled,” Vestager said.
Vestager also stated that a critical analysis of the evolution of data traffic over time and the COVID-19 pandemic is under way.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.