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Today, we shared our views with the European Commission as part of its consultation on the future of connectivity in Europe. We welcome the opportunity to give our perspective on how best to support the continued development of the telecoms ecosystem to the benefit of all. In our response we describe how Europe\u2019s commitment to network neutrality is foundational to its success in this space and how the introduction of network fees would put this success at risk.<\/p>\n
In our submission, we highlight our view that proposed network fees are a solution in search of a problem. Content providers\u2019 investments in infrastructure are growing rapidly, European networks continue to function well with plenty of capacity and there is ample private and public investment already available for deploying next-generation networks. Content providers already work well with telecom operators to increase the efficiency of networks, and as Telefonica have said, \u201cinternet Interconnection works well, so don\u2019t touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like others, we want to see the open Internet thrive and hope that the European Commission will continue to support open networks into the future. In our submission we outline our concerns about how introducing network fees is not only unjustified, but could upend many of the principles of the open Internet. Beyond looking for data to justify such an intervention in a well-functioning market, there are four key questions worth considering:<\/p>\n
Since the earliest days of Google, we have partnered with telecom operators to support the growth of the web with technical and infrastructure solutions. This work has helped enable a thriving open Internet where anyone with a connection and an idea \u2014 creators, publishers, SMEs and telecom operators themselves \u2014 can benefit. The symbiotic relationship between content providers like Google investing in our applications, technologies and services, and the telecoms industry investing in their infrastructure, has ensured that European citizens benefit from the open Internet.<\/p>\n
This exploratory consultation is an important opportunity for people to share their views on how best to support Europe\u2019s digital economy into the future. It\u2019s important that the perspectives of all players in the ecosystem \u2014 content providers, consumers, users, SMEs, creators and others \u2014 are taken into account in any next steps. If proposals emerge from this consultation it\u2019s important that these ideas are evidence-based, free from wide scale unintended consequences and support the continued growth of the open Internet in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n