Europe’s largest telecom operators such as BT, Vodafone, and Deutsche Telekom have asked tech companies such as Netflix and Amazon to pay some money due to rising costs due to the global streaming and internet boom. According to the report of the international newspaper Guardian, the demand has been made by the CEOs of 16 telecom companies in Europe, when the European Commission is preparing to launch a consultation, in which it will be discussed whether Google Technology companies like Facebook, Netflix and Microsoft should be asked to pay for the huge amount of internet traffic on their networks and the rising costs.
The newspaper reported that according to ETNO, the lobby of European telecommunications operators, more than half of the Internet traffic used worldwide is used by six Silicon Valley companies – Google, Facebook, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.
This ratio increases to 80% when gaming giants like Call of Duty, and Activision Blizzard are included in this. Then, due to shows such as Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, based on Netflix’s hit series Bridgerton and JRR Tolkien’s book, data usage on video streaming apps has increased significantly.
Telecom chiefs said in a joint statement that European telcos spend 50 billion euros (i.e. about Rs 400 billion) annually on building and maintaining full-fiber broadband and 5G networks.
At the same time, the energy crisis caused by the Russo-Ukraine war and the rising cost of things, as the cost of fiber optic cable alone has doubled this year, is adding to the financial burden. “We believe that the largest traffic generators should make a fair contribution to the large costs currently incurred on the European network,” it said in the statement.
