Europe’s major telecommunications companies have complained for years of only undertaking billion-dollar investments to deploy the telephony and internet networks on which digital transformation depends, and are demanding regulatory change from the EU that forces major digital platforms such as: Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon or Netflix bear a portion of the cost of the telecommunication infrastructures they use to run their business.
There was a discussion on the channel recently. The European Commission filed its first case last week for tech giants to pay the price, with the opening of a public consultation to voice a legislative reform that allows for a change in the infrastructure financing model. The legislative change process has become one of the hottest topics of discussion and gossip at this week’s major mobile industry expo Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
However amid the conflict between telecommunications and technology over paying for the use of networkswhile some wanted “fair contribution”, others warned that the “network tax” would drive up prices for the consumer and threaten the free movement of content.operators and big technology Expand cooperation agreements and find new areas to start renewed alliances strategic.
A new future for networks
At the opening of the Mobile World Congress, the global telecommunications association GSMA announced the historic alliance signed by 21 global operators, including the largest in the Spanish market, Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone, to leverage and transform the new digital possibilities of their networks. Telecommunications companies will open and standardize software applications (APIs) used by digital services developers to facilitate their distribution and commercialization.
Alliance of operators baptized as GSMA Open Gateway, seeks to revolutionize the role of telecommunications companies in the digital ecosystem. The point is that networks aren’t just channels for voice and data transport (and telecommunications companies charge for just that), but add to them. new layers with new capabilities thanks to digitalization and the ability to sell à la carte services to companies (making it a new source of income for operators).
Networks would cease to be just a telecommunications link to become a kind of “supercomputers” from which multiple new digital businesses could be developed, with companies that need these network services (such as banks, Governments, video game designers) able to purchase them. functions.
In the process, telecommunications companies have already started forming alliances with tech giants to facilitate the commercialization of these services, in order to rely on the giants of cloud services. Amazon, Google or Microsoft will work as a ‘store’ for these apps. In fact, both Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) attended the presentation of GSMA Open Gateway last Monday.
Telefónica will offer developers exclusive access to next-generation telecommunications services through its own APIs, which will now be open, interoperable and in a real environment, in collaboration with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Vonage (Ericsson). Participants will be able to develop new use cases based on Microsoft’s Azure Programmable Connectivity, Vonage Communications Platform, and new networking and telecommunications services across Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud marketplaces.
everyone’s cooperation
José María-Álvarez Pallete, president of Telefónica, is the current president of the GSMA employers association and is one of the strongest voices advocating payment for the use of networks, as well as direct supporters of the alliance of telecommunications companies to make these networks profitable with new digital services.
In his keynote at MWC 2023, Pallete called for the collaboration of telecommunications companies and big technology to drive a new digital future. “Now is the time for telecommunications companies, major tech and industrial players to collaborate to co-create the digital future,” he said. “Collaboration makes us all stronger. Collaboration fosters innovation, opportunity and growth. Collaboration embodies the power of what can be done to improve people’s lives when we all come together.”