In recent months, several high-level executives from European incumbent telecom operators have publicly expressed the necessity for Internet content and application providers to share some of their revenue with network operators in order to finance the investment needed in next-generation network wireline and wireless deployment. This question is at the heart of heated debates like network neutrality and next-generation access business models. Recent comments include:
? Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom (at the time) at the DigiWorld 2009 summit: ?Today, next-generation networks require colossal investments; as a consequence, there needs to be an equitable share with content and service editors.
? René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom in Manager Magazin (March 18, 2010): ?We cannot offer everything for nothing; those who strongly solicit the network should be the ones who pay.
? César Alierta, chairman of Telefónica in El País (Feb. 2, 2010): ?What is clear is that Internet search engines use our network without paying anything, which is fortunate for them and a curse for us. It is also clear that this cannot continue.
Only one of these quotes points explicitly at Google (even if the company is not named), but as the largest and most profitable Internet player, Google is considered to be the implicit target. This report explores a hypothetical scenario to try to assess the impact of Google sharing some of its revenue with the telcos.
Telecommunication Services Industry in France
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