The EU Commission’s plan for Big Tech to share the costs of fiber optic expansion has found a surprising advocate: Brendan Carr, commissioner of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), nominated by Donald Trump, considers the controversial infrastructure fee to be a “smart” option to create incentives for investment. The fact that the data toll is intended to hit large US platform operators such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Netflix in particular is not a problem for the Republican. According to him, a system in which IT companies negotiate directly with the telecommunications operators is the fastest way to close the investment gap for nationwide fiber optic connections.
Brendan Carr has been the FC commissioner since 2017
(Image: FCC)
The financial requirements required for this are very high in the EU, Carr explained to the online magazine “Euractiv”. An additional 300 to 400 billion euros are needed to achieve the EU target of providing all households with high-speed Internet access and all citizens with 5G by 2030. If customers like using the services of a provider so much that it accounts for an annual average of five percent of the data traffic during the busiest hour of each day, the provider should pay network fees, EU network operators are demanding.
Carr recommends “market correction”
“There has to be a certain market correction in Europe,” emphasized the US regulator. “Anyone who says the status quo works is missing some comparative data between the situation in Europe and the situation in other parts of the world.” US operators are now investing about twice as much in their networks per user as their European counterparts.
The US Department of Commerce has also committed $40 billion to fund broadband projects, Carr reported. Nothing similar is foreseen in the EU budget. Another possibility would be to approve further mergers of telecommunications companies. The EU competition authorities generally shied away from this as well. A third way would be to encourage European network operators to significantly increase wholesale prices. In view of the already high inflation and cost of living, politicians in the EU are also holding back here. A network fee is therefore particularly recommended.
net neutrality
“We call it fair share,” explained the regulator, using a term that EU bodies are now also fond of using in the debate. “We’re looking at it very closely in the United States. We think it has tremendous benefits.” The accusation that Europe wants to practice protectionism does not apply. A data toll does not violate the principle of net neutrality either – Carr himself abolished net neutrality in the USA with two Republican colleagues in 2017. Carr believes that the data toll is not intended to slow down the network traffic of providers who do not want to close a deal with the telcos. The man does not say exactly how that would happen. He believes that relevant issues could ultimately be clarified in court.
Carr is thus at odds with the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (GEREK). This stated in autumn that the network operators’ constant pressure to share costs was not justified. According to EU regulators, the Internet has demonstrated its ability “to cope with increasing traffic, changes in demand patterns, technology, business models and the (relative) market power of market participants”. The German federal government does not know of any option to implement such a levy in a way that is compatible with competition and net neutrality and with little administrative effort. The previous financing mechanisms for investments in digital infrastructures in Germany or the EU are sufficient for her.
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