BRUSSELS: U.S. tech giants ought to bear a number of the prices of creating Europe’s telecoms networks as a result of they use them so closely, chief executives of Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and 11 different main European telecoms firms stated on Monday.
The decision by the CEOs comes because the telecoms trade faces huge investments for 5G, fibre and cable networks to deal with knowledge and cloud companies supplied by Netflix and Google’s YouTube and Fb.
Investments in Europe’s telco sector rose to 52.5 billion euros ($59.4 billion) final yr, a six-year excessive.
“A big and rising a part of community site visitors is generated and monetized by huge tech platforms, but it surely requires steady, intensive community funding and planning by the telecommunications sector,” the CEOs stated in a joint assertion seen by Reuters.
“This mannequin – which permits EU residents to benefit from the fruits of the digital transformation – can solely be sustainable if such huge tech platforms additionally contribute pretty to community prices,” they stated.
The CEOs didn’t point out any tech companies by identify, however Reuters understands that U.S.-listed giants corresponding to Netflix and Fb are firms they keep in mind.- Reuters
