To inaugurate the Czech Presidency of the Council, EU and national associations AOMR (RO), APMS (CZ), AssoTelecomunicazioni (IT), ATI (BG), DigitalES (SP), ETNO (EU), Fédération Française des Télécoms (FR), and the GSMA Europe (EU) released a joint statement emphasising committment to achieve the ambitious EU Digital Decade Targets, which include the roll-out of “gigabit connectivity for everyone and 5G everywhere by 2030”.

The statement called on European policymakers to promote swift policy intervention and to help ensure that big tech companies contribute their fair share to growing the EU Internet ecosystem, especially in the context of continuous data traffic increases. All European network operators investing in gigabit networks – no matter whether alternative or traditional, small or big – should be able to rely on a fair and proportionate contribution by big tech companies to the network costs they generate with their traffic.

Such action can – and should – be achieved in full respect of Europe’s EU Open Internet principles, as this is expected to strongly benefit users via network upgrades, to reinforce internet infrastructure and to be fully compatible with unrestricted access to all lawful content and applications on the internet.

The signatories called on Ministers as well as EU policymakers to stand firm in supporting and advancing the principle of “fair and proportionate contribution”, which will be instrumental in sustaining and growing the EU internet ecosystem.

  Find the full statement at the link below!