EU telecom operators call on IT giants to pay network costs

Telecom providers say the European Union needs to adopt new legislation on network costs that should be paid by big tech companies. 

Eurozone telecom providers lobbied for a bill that would require U.S. technology giants, including Google, Amazon, Netflix and others, to provide financial support to the industry. The reason is higher Internet traffic in the region spent by the leading American companies. 

Currently, the GSMA, a telecom association with more than 750 telecom providers, is discussing the latest proposal to pay for network costs by corporations. 

John Giusti, head of the GSMA's regulatory division, believes the association would agree with the draft clauses referring to the IT giants' input to Europe's infrastructure. 

The proposal comes ahead of EU talks on "a fair contribution to European infrastructure" by technology companies, i.e. Google, Netflix and Amazon. Their share represents more than half of the industry’s Internet traffic.

However, these companies refuse to agree with this statement. In their view, such an initiative appears to be a tax on Internet traffic.

Insiders report that the bill has not yet been sent to the EU. Officials are waiting to see if the proposal will be submitted directly by the GSMA or only certain chief executives.