#EU #Roaming #BigTelco #Broadband: "The European Parliament has already tried to remove the charges for cross-border EU calls in the context of the Roaming Regulation, in which context MEPs argued to drop the telecom operators’ extra charges when calling from one EU country to another.

Mituţa is re-proposing the European Parliament’s position on this matter in the GIA, which, considering that the maximum fees for intra-EU calls will expire next year, he sees as “fundamental to avoid reaching May 2024 without a solution”.

The current caps are €0.19 per minute for calls and €0.06 per SMS. Mituţa explained that this provision wanted to avoid the risk that the next European Parliament elections would find no agreement which would leave citizens with “excessive prices”."

https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/leading-mep-wants-to-abolish-intra-eu-call-fees-in-broadband-law/

#EU #Broadband #BigTelco #NetworkFees #NetworkNeutrality: "Digital rights groups are strongly against the introduction of network usage fees, for reasons that range from its inherent – and unsolvable – contradiction with net neutrality, to the detrimental impact that network fees will have on European consumers. In its contribution to the exploratory consultation, the NGO Epicenter.works reminds the Commission that network fees “simply cannot be done without infringing on net neutrality”.

The Internet Society echoes: “The introduction of a mandatory payment mechanism would be directly inconsistent and incompatible with [net neutrality] obligations, with direct harm to consumers as a result. For instance, enforcement of the new obligation would give ISPs the right to treat traffic differently, e.g., by allowing them to block, or in other ways penalize, services that do not wish to pay the ISP. In consequence, users would no longer have access to an open Internet, but would be limited to the services that have concluded an agreement to pay their ISP.”

Eventually, end users would suffer most if big telcos get their way. “Consumers will be hurt by poorer service quality and higher prices. SMEs will also face higher prices and a deteriorating service quality as network topology adapts to this artificial price regulation. The cost of innovating in Europe will increase and the resilience of the overall internet could fall below required levels to overcome a potential next crisis. Smaller ISPs currently do more for network development than incumbents, yet they will be hit particularly hard in their ability to compete,” according to Epicenter.works."

https://www.project-disco.org/european-union/network-fees-rejected-stakeholder-response-to-the-ec-consultation/

#USA #BigTelco #BigTech #Broadband: "Proposals to pay for broadband networks by imposing new fees on Big Tech companies "are built on a false premise," Meta executives wrote in a blog post today.

"Network fee proposals do not recognize that our investments in content drive the business model of telecom operators," Meta executives Kevin Salvadori and Bruno Cendon Martin wrote. Meta's comments came a few weeks after Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters spoke out against the proposal being reviewed by European regulators.

Meta executives said telecom operators and content application providers (CAPs) "are symbiotic businesses, occupying different but complementary roles in the digital ecosystem. Every year, Meta invests tens of billions of euros in our apps and platforms—such as Facebook, Instagram, and Quest—to facilitate the hosting of content. Billions of people go online every day to access this content, creating the demand that allows telecom operators to charge people for Internet access. Our investment in content literally drives the revenue and business model of telecom operators.""

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/meta-slams-telco-fee-proposal-says-isps-should-pay-their-own-network-costs/

RT @socialhack
In the middle of the worst cost of living crisis the EU Commissioner for competition @vestager argues for less competition and higher consumer prices. It seems the profits of multibillion #BigTelco|s are above the publics interest: https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/2b7xs7payiktkefkh1hj4/news/vestager-calls-for-eu-to-centralise-and-consolidate-telecoms

@mgeist Maybe he has to consult his #BigTelco bosses?