Regulators Avoiding Google Fight With Telcos

Telecommunications regulators in the UK and US say they plan to stay out of a dispute between mobile-phone operators and Internet companies such as Google over who should pay for high-speed wireless networks.

“I think it’s premature to regulate,” Ed Vaizey, the UK communications minister, said. “Right now this really is a matter to be considered between companies.” Led by European operators including France Telecom and Telefonica, phone companies in 2010 began demanding a new deal from the owners of bandwidth-heavy services like YouTube and Apple’s iTunes. The operators face mounting costs for building next-generation networks, and have rarely succeeded in offering their own video or social-networking services over those conduits. Vaizey joined Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski at a summit in Paris this week in ruling out regulatory intervention for now to help wireless operators share network costs. France’s Industry Minister Eric Besson, who has in the past strongly backed such measures, softened his position, saying that the subject is ‘legitimate’ for regulators to consider.