Our website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

Big Tech ‘fair share’ debate set to dominate Barcelona mobile meet

by Staff GBAF Publications Ltd
0 comment

By Supantha Mukherjee, Martin Coulter and Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) -A clash between Big Tech and European Union telecoms firms over who will underwrite network infrastructure is set to dominate discussion at the world’s largest telecoms conference this week.

More than 80,000 people, including tech executives, innovators, and regulators, are set to descend on this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Thursday launched a 12-week consultation on its “fair share” proposals, under which Big Tech platforms would bear more of the costs of the systems which give them access to consumers.

Representatives from companies including Alphabet, Meta and Netflix are expected to use the conference as a platform to push back against the EU proposals.

Content providers like Netflix, which has arranged for its CEO Greg Peters to meet with Breton at the conference, argue their firms already invest heavily in infrastructure.

They say that paying out additional fees will detract from investment in products that benefit consumers.

By contrast, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia have been actively lobbying for Big Tech to pay the fees.

GSMA, an association representing more than 750 mobile operators and the organising body behind MWC, has been at the forefront of the debate.

“This discussion around ‘fair share’, or what we sometimes call the ‘investment gap’, is going to be a threshold question,” said John Giusti, GSMA’s chief regulatory officer.

Critics of the fair share or “SPNP” (Sending Party Network Pays) model have warned the so-called “traffic tax” could lead content-driven platforms to route their services via ISPs (internet service providers) outside of the EU.

Orange told Reuters the telecoms industry was not asking for special privileges in its demands. A spokesperson said the EU’s consultation was a “positive first sign” of a debate starting.

“We argue for a framework that will facilitate a fair and equitable commercial relationship that recognizes a direct contribution by tech giants to network costs,” they said.

Regulations will, however, be difficult to implement and enforce, said Shahid Ahmed, executive vice president at NTT and an adviser to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

“We saw something very similar – the whole net neutrality debate – attempted in the U.S.,” he said.

The MWC, which begins on Monday, will also see new product launches from companies including Huawei, Xiaomi, HMD Global, Honor, and RealMe.

Other hot topics include the 5G adoption rate, which has disappointed some executives, and the potential uses of generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“Everything on the floor of MWC is about looking to the future,” Guisti said.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, Martin Coulter, and Joan Faus; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Alexander Smith)