Google refuses to share network costs, says the idea is bad for consumers

a The Googleof Alphabet on Monday rejected an attempt by European telecom operators to get the company to help fund network costs, saying it was a 10-year-old idea and bad for consumers and that the company had already invested millions in internet infrastructure.

The comments made by Matt Britten, head of Europe, Middle East and Asia business and operations at Google, come as the European Commission is seeking answers from the telecom and technology industries on the matter before submitting a legislative proposal.

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Big telecoms companies are complaining about their tech rivals, saying they use a lot of internet traffic and should contribute financially.

Britten said the idea, which was launched more than 10 years ago, could disrupt European net neutrality or open up Internet access.

“Introducing the ‘sender pays’ principle is not a new idea and could upend many principles of the open internet,” he said in the text of a speech read at a conference organized by the communications group ETNO.

“It can have a negative impact on consumers, especially at a time of higher prices,” Britten said, citing a report by European consumer group BEUC.

According to him, Google is doing its part to make the Internet more efficient for telecom companies, moving 99% of the way and investing millions of euros.

“In 2021, we invested more than €23 billion, mostly in infrastructure,” Britten said, adding that this includes six large data centers in Europe, global undersea cables and caches for storing content on local networks.