from the the-net-neutrality-wars-will-never-die dept
For a lot of the final yr, European telecom giants have been pushing for a tax on Big Tech company profits. They’ve tried desperately to decorate it up as an affordable grownup coverage proposal, nevertheless it’s successfully simply the identical factor we noticed throughout the U.S. web neutrality wars: telecom monopolies demanding other people pay them an additional troll toll — for no coherent reason.
To promote captured lawmakers on the concept, telecom giants have falsely claimed that Large Tech firms get a “free experience” on the Web (simply as they did throughout the U.S. net neutrality wars). To repair this downside they utterly made up, Large Telecom argues Large Tech needs to be pressured to assist pay for the sort of broadband infrastructure upgrades the telecoms have routinely uncared for for years.
It’s a giant, dumb con. However but once more, telecom lobbyists have by some means satisfied regulators that this blind money seize is by some means smart, grownup coverage. Dutifully, European Fee’s business chief Thierry Breton (himself a former telecom exec) mentioned final September he would launch a session on this “fair proportion” cost scheme in early 2023, forward of any proposed laws.
Hoping to steer Breton away from the concept, The European Web Alternate Affiliation, a coalition of key transit firms, recently warned that making an attempt to sock tech giants with arbitrary polls would lead to a much less steady web total, as firms attempt to route their site visitors round ISPs in search of an additional buck.
Equally, Dutch Financial Affairs Minister Micky Adriaansens is warning Breton that tech giants will merely offload the upper prices of web entry to shoppers (one thing we’re already seeing in South Korea the place such a proposal has already been carried out at telecom lobbyist demand):
“It’ll penalise the shoppers,” she informed Reuters in an interview, saying that buyers who pay subscription charges to telecoms suppliers and likewise subscribe to streaming and video providers might even see the latter charges go up with Large Tech prone to go on the web tax.
Regulators worldwide are more and more in search of methods to bridge the “digital divide” and shore up subsidy funding for broadband enlargement.
However they’re usually not taking a look at the true downside. Each within the EU and North America, regulators routinely and mindlessly let telecom giants consolidate and monopolize an important utility. These monopolies then work tirelessly to drive up charges and crush competitors. And, using their lobbying energy, they’ve additionally routinely gleamed billions in subsidies for networks they routinely half-complete.
Severe reform would contain embracing insurance policies that problem monopolization, and interact in significant subsidy reform — guaranteeing that the billions we give telecom giants first truly go towards significant community enhancements. When you’ve completed that, you’ll be able to deal with further funding mechanisms if they really make sense.
As a substitute, EU regulators have determined to embrace a plan that includes Large Tech giving Large Telecom billions of further {dollars} for no coherent motive. All whereas EU suppliers like Telefonica pretend that erecting these new troll tolls will lead to “top-notch digital infrastructure” and are “key to our future high quality of life, prosperity, and competitiveness.”
If the EU efficiently implements such a scheme, you could be completely positive the following step would be the U.S., with captured regulators like Brendan Carr (who has been beating this idiotic drum for a few years now) on the entrance of the parade at Comcast’s and AT&T’s behest.
Filed Underneath: broadband, eu, fair share, high speed internet, sender pays, telecom, telecom tax, thierry breton
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