Biden’s NTIA Says EU Telecoms’ ‘Big Tech Tax’ A Blisteringly Dumb Idea
from the get-paid-twice-for-absolutely-no-reason dept
We’ve noted several times how European ISPs have somehow convinced European Commission that technology giants should repeatedly give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason.
This “fair share” proposal is dressed up to sound like a sensible adult policy aimed at shoring up broadband access. In reality it’s net neutrality 2.0: telecom giants using their leverage and power politically to try and offload network build and maintenance costs to someone else (namely, you).
As the EU ponders implementing a system that would have the biggest tech companies paying big telecoms directly every month simply for existing, the Biden administration and the NTIA filed their own comments with the European Commission. In them, they argue such a system would drive up costs and violate net neutrality by giving telecoms power and wealth they don’t deserve:
Mandating direct payments to telecom operators in the EU absent assurances on spending could reinforce the dominant market position of the largest operators,” the US submission said. “It could give operators a new bottleneck over customers, raise costs for end users, and alter incentives for CAPs/LTGs [content and application providers and large traffic generators] to make efficient decisions regarding network investment and interconnection. It is difficult to understand how a system of mandatory payments imposed on only a subset of content providers could be enforced without undermining net neutrality.”
Again, this is the same old ploy telecoms have been trying to implement for twenty years of net neutrality infighting. In short, it’s regional telecom monopolies demanding they be paid extra simply because, even though everybody in the chain — from consumers to the biggest tech giants — already pay an arm and a leg for connectivity thanks to limited competition and monopolization.
As noted last week, telecoms have already had success implementing such a model in South Korea, where ISPs now feel emboldened to sue Netflix for compensation simply because certain programs are profitable. It’s effectively double dipping, and you’d have to be positively naïve to (1) believe this is a serious policy proposal, or (2) not believe it will be abused by telecoms with a history of pocketing billions in subsidies in exchange for slow, spotty, half-completed broadband networks.
Again, should this telecom lobbyist gambit succeed in the EU, you’re going to see a renewed push for something similar here in the States (captured regulators like FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr have been busy little bees seeding the idea in the press for several years). It always pretends to be a helpful way to expand broadband access, but it’s little more than a glorified cash grab.
The end result will be a lopsided connectivity system open to abuse by telecom giants, an internet that could be less reliable as companies try to route traffic around the errant surcharges, and higher prices for absolutely everybody in the chain.
Filed Under: broadband, digital divide, eu, fair share, high speed internet, net neutrality, ntia, subsidies, telecom
Comments on “Biden’s NTIA Says EU Telecoms’ ‘Big Tech Tax’ A Blisteringly Dumb Idea”
i think most people, except those associated with the telecoms industries and also those getting kick-backs from trying to bring this ridiculousness in, would agree, however, think back to where this idea first came from and how it is now being implemented or at least is trying to be implemented worldwide and the answer is the good ol’ USofA! the reason it’s spreading is because it’s such a stupid idea and was stopped, certainly for the moment, here! if it gains traction everywhere else and the entertainments industries get their way and control the entire internet, it’ll come back to the USA with a vengeance! why the hell there is no resistance being used against these industries is beyond me! once we lose the ‘net, it will never come back, being available only as a means for those said industries to make even more money than they already do! and let’s face it, according to them, there is nothing on the Planet that is more important than them making fortune on top of fortune!!
Messsage from Big telcos.
We are big and profitable, and therefore have the right to grow even bigger and more profitable, and it is the government job to help us do this.
Re:
But we’re not profitable enough! we’re dying here! If only someone could give us billions of Euros for nothing and not expect any improvements except maybe in further lobbying, begging, and threatening.
Note to the NTIA: Mandating direct payments to telecom operators anywhere even with assurances on spending equally reinforces the dominant position because the telecom operators simply don’t fulfill their promises and keep the money. You need to also impose meaningful penalties for failure to fulfill obligations for it to work. And by “meaningful” I don’t mean a fine of a fraction of the amount they received, I mean they have to pay back every penny they received plus fines equal to a fraction of their annual revenue on top of that, plus go on probation where any further payments go into escrow and are only released after proof that the work has been done (assuming they aren’t completely disqualified from receiving payments at all).
Also, if the providers are paying for the bandwidth, the telecom operator is not allowed to bill their own customers for that same bandwidth. No double-dipping.
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An easier solution might be to stop offering subsidies and start offering refunds. Make the company foot the bill to do all the work and only after it has been completed allow them to file for a full ‘refund’ to cover the costs.
If no work means no money then I imagine they’d be a lot more earnest in holding up their end of the deal.
pot calling the kettle black?
I still ask, that the USA gov. track the telco lines in the USA and see whats NOT updated.
It's easy to be critical when someone else is doing it
The real test will be whether they will still be saying the same when local pressures are applied to try the same thing in the US.
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I mean, literally in the article above this one, we’ve got California legislature promising the media that they’ll take money from Big Tech and give it to them.
The government doesn’t want Big Tech to pay Europeans. The government wants Big Tech to pay other American moguls, regardless of whether they actually deserve it.
Re: Re:
That’s funny, because it WAS an American mogul (Australian-born) that kicked this bullshit off…
The big telecoms want to make sure they get paid four times for hauling the same bits.
And they want to make sure that none of the four actually goes to building and maintaining the network, so they want to have the government tax both the subscribers and service providers to pay for that.