Telecom operators, starting with SFR, intend to put pressure to end Net neutrality and make the Web giants who use their infrastructures, such as Netflix, pay.
In February, the Senate commission of inquiry into media concentration in France will hear several major press bosses who, for some, are also at the helm of telecom operators. This is the case of Patrick Drahi, owner of Altice (SFR), who was heard on Wednesday February 2. As our colleagues from Next Inpact report, the billionaire took this opportunity to smash the concept of Net neutrality, determined to make the digital giants who exploit the infrastructures of the operators pay.
Acknowledging to evoke an idea against the current, the boss of Altice thus described Net neutrality as being “huge nonsense”. “We, the telecom operators, thanks to regulatory measures, we are obliged to treat all service providers in the same way. We cannot differentiate this or that depending on whether it is called x, y or z (…) Except that the billions we invest and the jobs we create or maintain in France are 85% used by the Gafa”, he cursed. According to him, in the evening, up to 85% of the traffic would be due to a few foreign giants. A high but realistic figure, Arcep estimating that more than 50% of traffic is drained by five players: Netflix, Google, Akamai, Facebook and Amazon; in this order.
For Patrick Drahi, it would be normal for these very large consumers of bandwidth to go to the cash register, while besides that, their subscriptions increase quite regularly, their subscriber bases are enormous, and they hardly pay no taxes in France.
Like Arthur Dreyfuss, president of the French Telecoms Federation (which brings together Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom) and managing director of Altice Media, the businessman uses the metaphor of the highway, recalling that to take it, the bigger the vehicle, the more it pays. “When you take a motorway, you pay for the journey, the maintenance of the road and the work to come. Why, on the telecom networks, do the content providers not pay any tolls?”he wonders in an interview with the World.
With France holding the presidency of the European Union and the presidential election approaching, the players in the telecoms market are undoubtedly seeking to put pressure on the public authorities and the legislator in order to advance a few pawns to their advantage. Unfortunately for them, the American example has shown that despite the repeal of net neutrality under the Trump administration, service providers have not invested more in their infrastructure since. Net neutrality which, moreover, could soon be restored by the Federal Communication Commissions across the Atlantic.