Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix were reportedly responsible for no less than 56% of global web traffic in 2021. © Getty — bee32/iStock
The idea of putting Gafam to work to finance telecommunications networks is gaining ground. While the file resurfaced this year in Brussels, the French operators want to move up a gear. Indeed, the French Telecoms Federation (FFT), which notably includes Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, is claiming 2 billion euros from Amazon, Google, Netflix and others, reveals The Informed, media financed in particular by Xavier Niel, the founder of Free, who also joined this approach. In detail, there would be 1.5 billion euros for mobile networks and 500 million for fixed networks.
In the eyes of French operators, this sum would be “a fair contribution from large bandwidth users to the financing of networks”. According to a study conducted by the lobby of European telecom operators (ETNO), Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix would have been responsible for no less than 56% of global web traffic in 2021. This therefore raises the question of their participation in the costs of maintaining and developing the infrastructure, since they are the biggest users. “It is now time to reorganize the fair remuneration of the networks. After the DSA & DMA, it is now one of the main projects in our digital space”had also declared Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, on Twitter last May.