A new net neutrality battle is shaping up in Europe. As I wrote in a piece we published on the weekend, Europe’s legacy telecommunications providers finally have an opening in their longstanding quest to charge Big Tech for sending its content over their networks.
Thanks to an incoming tide of protectionism, along with the fact that Europe has promised to offer gigabit connectivity to all citizens by 2030, the telcos have a golden opportunity to try forcing companies like Meta and Netflix to help pay for new infrastructure. It surely doesn’t hurt that the relevant chief at the European Commission, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, is himself a former telco CEO who has already declared that “it is necessary to reorganize the fair remuneration of the networks.” Now he’s launched a consultation on the idea.
