Majority EU ministers against network fee levy on big tech for 5G roll out: Report

Telecom operators across the globe are pushing for a significant network infrastructure upgrade. India started the 5G operations in October 2022, whereas other major economies like Japan have already started their work on 6G technology. It is imperative to note that these infrastructure upgrades need a lot of funding in terms of bidding for bandwidth auctions, adapting to the newest technology, and other resources.

The 5G rollout process in the European Union (EU) is facing some headwinds on the implementation front. A majority of Europe's telecom operators have demanded that the big tech companies residing in the EU should partner with them to help fund 5G rollout and broadband across Europe, a move which has been rejected or criticised by telecom ministers of at least 18 EU countries, news agency Reuters reported citing sources.

Not happy with the proposal, a majority of EU countries have rejected this push to impose funding demands from the big tech companies. This is also in the backdrop of the claim by the telcos that major tech companies are the prime consumers of data, and their contribution to the same is important too.

Telecom Ministers from 18 EU countries have not approved the proposed network fee levy at the meeting with EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Luxembourg, which was also followed by the comments made in the EU regulators group BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications), Reuters report added.

Tussle between tech firms and the telcos

Major telecom companies like Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Telecom Italia have supported the idea of demanding funds from big tech. This contribution proposal was also backed by the EU's industry chief, Breton, a former chief executive of France Telecom and French IT consulting firm Atos.

The tussle escalated with the denial of tech companies like Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Netflix, and Microsoft. These major tech firms have further reiterated that they invest in potential digital ecosystems and not in the proposed contribution. 

The EU ministers have raised concerns that demanding such contributions from the tech firms would result in increased costs to consumers and high risk to the investments and financial factors of the big tech. It would result in a potential violation of the EU net neutrality rules that require every user to be treated equally in terms of innovations and applicable low-cost services.

The countries that have criticised the proposal include Austria, Belgium, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, and the Netherlands, while Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, and Italy backed the idea. Poland, Portugal, and Romania have maintained a neutral approach and have not decided on anything.