Proper enforcement of EU online platform rules – the Digital Services and Markets Acts – will help reduce the burden on telecom network infrastructures, a senior European Commission official tasked with framing new telecom network rules said in Brussels on Thursday.
Renate Nikolay, the deputy director-general at the Commissions’ DG Connect, told an event organised by Vodafone in Brussels on Thursday that the right type of enforcement of the existing rules would impact on mobile traffic.
The Commission is aiming to publish the Digital Networks Act (DNA), an overhaul of the bloc’s telecom rules to address connectivity issues, by the end of this year.
“For example, when it comes to rules for the protection of minors online will make a difference in social media use: we should not have constant loops to keep users online,” she said.
She added that the same applies to practices of online marketplaces, such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress. The Commission has begun a few probes into recommender systems, which aim to keep users browsing online, for a lack of transparency.
Telecom providers have been in favour of a fairer spread of costs for infrastructure with large users of their networks, including streaming platforms. The high demand for connectivity means a lot of extra costs for the big telecom players, they claim.
Vodafone recently presented a paper on the “responsible use of networks” which states that content providers, “who do not bear the cost of using networks, lack the incentive to use them in a responsible manner.”
Joakim Reiter, Vodafone’s Chief External and Corporate Affairs Officer, called at the same event for the end of a sectoral approach to regulation actors in the telecom space.
“Whenever we offer a very similar service like a competitor, but that company is not regulated under telecom rules, we will end up with very different costs,” Reiter said. He said that more horizontal regulation would be needed.
Microsoft’s Director EU Government Affairs Tomas Jakimavičius said that his company has been very involved in the build-out of tech infrastructure – including data centers, sub sea cables and devices — through partnerships.
“We would need to look at the root of the problem and the current framework before proposing new rules,” he said.
So far, member states have been split about the plans for more telecom rules and questioned their necessity.
