By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission does not think that imposing a network fee on Big Tech companies is a viable solution to the debate over who should fund the rollout of 5G and broadband, a spokesman for the EU executive said on Thursday.
The issue pits Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia against Alphabet’s Google, Meta’s Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon.
Europe’s major telecoms operators have for years urged EU regulators to get Big Tech to bear some of the rollout costs because they make up a huge part of internet traffic, calling it fair share funding.
Big Tech has pushed back, characterising it as an internet tax while pointing to their own efforts to increase the efficiency of their services.
The debate has gained in intensity following a White House fact sheet released on July 28 following a trade deal with the European Union which said that the bloc confirmed that it would not adopt or maintain network usage fees.
While reaffirming that the EU has the sovereign rights to legislate on its digital infrastructure, Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said a White Paper or guidance paper issued last year had already decided on the issue of network fees.
“We have published a White Paper last year in February. Based on the findings of this White Paper, we have assessed and we believe that imposing a network fee is not a viable solution,” Regnier told a daily press conference when asked about the White House fact sheet.
“What is important to clarify now is that such an exemption would not apply to U.S. companies only,” he said.
The Commission is expected to issue a legislative proposal called the Digital Networks Act in November which will take a more comprehensive approach to boost digital infrastructure across Europe.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Bart Meijers in Amsterdam; editing by Giles Elgood)
