New push to make Big Tech pay more for bandwidth

Regulators around the world are exploring forcing Big Tech companies to pay more for the internet service they rely on to make their billions. A growing number of governments think tech giants should up their contributions to the basic internet service that makes their success possible. That money could prop up local economies or help close the digital divide. The Senate Commerce Committee on May 11 voted to approve the Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable Contributions (FAIR Contributions) Act (S.2427), bipartisan legislation that would order the Federal Communications Commission to study the feasibility of collecting fees from companies like Google and Netflix to shore up the agency's broadband deployment subsidy fund, the Universal Service Fund. Meanwhile, in Europe, antitrust chief and European Commission executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said that "the issue of fair contribution to telecommunication networks" is something lawmakers should consider "with a lot of focus." The idea to tax Big Tech to underwrite the FCC's broadband fund, which supports internet service in rural areas, schools, libraries and hospitals, picked up steam among Republicans in 2021. Companies that connect people to the internet and those that provide what people access on the internet, like videos, TV shows and music, are battling over who should foot the bill as streaming's costs and popularity grow. Netflix is already engaged in this fight in South Korea. Internet service providers in the US have argued Big Tech should pay into the increasing cost of broadband.