Italy is taking steps aimed at ensuring big tech companies share in the costs of developing telecoms infrastructure. |Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
Italy is taking steps to ensure that big tech companies share in the costs of developing the country’s telecoms infrastructure, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said on Monday.
Telecommunications companies argue that Alphabet Inc’s Google, Meta Inc’s Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft should bear some of the costs of deploying high-speed networks because they account for a large portion of Internet traffic.
Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia call it fair share financing, while big tech companies say it amounts to an internet tax.
“We are all solving this problem. It is important that we move in this direction,” Urso told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Milan.
“It makes sense for large tech companies to contribute workloads and then delegate them to large telecom networks,” he added.
Several ruling politicians have introduced proposals in parliament stating that big technology companies should negotiate technical and economic conditions for telecom operators’ salaries.
The Coalition’s Andrea Dara said in an amendment that our “proposal seeks to introduce contributions from online platforms, large online search engines and gatekeepers to support the development of electronic communications networks.” road investment”.
The move is broadly in line with measures proposed at EU level ahead of last June’s elections, which gave European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen a second term in office.
Published – October 21, 2024 at 4:18 pm (IST)