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Europe’s telecoms providers have released a proposal today calling for tech giants Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple to be made to pay their “fair share” towards 5G and super-fast fibre broadband internet services across the continent.

“The next generation of tech — everything from connected cars, to home automation, to virtual reality and the metaverse — will rely on high-speed mobile networks,” Michael Witts, director of communication for GSMA, which represents the mobile industry, tells the Standard.

“But that costs money and it’s only fair that the companies that benefit most, from the access to consumers that we give them, help pay the cost.”

In fact, Mr Grant says analysts who research network capacity found European telcos have more than enough bandwidth to run 5G networks. He thinks the telcos are overstating the problem and their finances.

He thinks the row might also have something to do with the prices telcos charge to connect the tech giants’ data centres to their networks, which has led to Microsoft and Google building their own fibre networks.