{"id":10927,"date":"2022-07-18T07:25:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T06:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/europe\/?p=10927"},"modified":"2024-05-29T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T13:43:12","slug":"joint-eu-and-national-telecom-sector-statement-on-fair-contribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/europe\/news\/joint-eu-and-national-telecom-sector-statement-on-fair-contribution\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint EU and National Telecom Sector Statement on \u201cFair Contribution\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brussels, 18 July 2022 \u2013 EU and national associations AOMR (RO), APMS (CZ), AssoTelecomunicazioni (IT), ATI (BG), DigitalES (SP), ETNO (EU), F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Fran\u00e7aise des T\u00e9l\u00e9coms (FR), GSMA Europe (EU) and and *Internetoffensive \u00d6sterreich (Austria)* released the following Joint Statement<\/a> at the start of the Czech Presidency of the EU:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Associations represent the companies bringing ultrafast digital connectivity to European citizens, across Member States. We are proud of the EU internet ecosystem, of the vibrant community of ICT companies that populate it, and of the hard work that small and big telecom companies do every day to reach every European household across 27 Member States.<\/p>\n

We are committed to working tirelessly to achieve the ambitious EU Digital Decade<\/a> Targets, which include the roll-out of \u201cgigabit connectivity for everyone and 5G everywhere by 2030\u201d. In addition, our member companies are proactively working to support the EU Green Deal<\/a> objectives, which require full digitalization in order to achieve net zero emissions. These targets are essential in empowering our societies, boosting our national economies and underpinning the twin green-digital transition.<\/p>\n

European telecom operators are firmly committed to reach such targets, but their full and speedy achievement across all 27 Member States requires that the responsibility is shared collectively by the entire digital ecosystem.<\/p>\n

In this context, we strongly support the EU Declaration<\/a> on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade, which calls for establishing relevant frameworks to ensure a \u201cfair and proportionate contribution\u201d of all players. Similarly, we support the public debate launched by Executive Vice-president Vestager and Commissioner Breton in May 2022 for an open discussion on whether all players currently contribute fairly to the development of digital network infrastructures.<\/p>\n

Our Associations ask 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 \u2013 no matter whether alternative or traditional, small or big \u2013 should be able to rely on a fair and proportionate contribution by big tech companies to the network costs they generate with their traffic.<\/p>\n

Such action can \u2013 and should \u2013 be achieved in full respect of Europe\u2019s EU Open Internet principles. We expect it 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.<\/p>\n

We therefore call on Ministers as well as EU policymakers to stand firm in supporting and advancing the principle of \u201cfair and proportionate contribution\u201d and we believe it will be instrumental in sustaining and growing the EU internet ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Media inquiries:
\n<\/strong>AOMR\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Mihai Constantin (constantin@aomr.ro<\/a>)
\nAPMS<\/strong>\u00a0– Ji\u0159\u00ed Grund (jiri.grund@apms.cz<\/a>)
\nAssoTelecomunicazioni<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Matteo Cecconi (matteo.cecconi.consultant@asstel.it<\/a>)
\nATI\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0– Andreana Atanasova (aatanasova@ati.bg<\/a>)
\nDigitalES<\/strong>\u00a0– Elena Arrieta (elena.arrieta@digitales.es<\/a>) +34 661 930 285
\nETNO<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Alessandro Gropelli (gropelli@etno.eu<\/a>); Gabriel Daia (daia@etno.eu<\/a>)
\nF\u00e9d\u00e9ration Fran\u00e7aise des T\u00e9l\u00e9coms<\/strong>\u00a0– Alice Provost (aprovost@fftelecoms.org<\/a>)
\nGSMA Europe<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Michael Witts (mwitts@gsma.com<\/a>)
\n*Internetoffensive \u00d6sterreich<\/strong>\u00a0– Sandra Edelbacher (s.edelbacher@internetoffensive.at<\/a>)
\n*Joined in September 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information please contact:<\/h5>\n\n
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