2023-12-07 04:20:00
Entities representing around 15 sectors of the economy launched the “Open Internet Alliance” this Wednesday (6). The movement says it is against the possible creation of a network fee to subsidize part of the internet infrastructure costs.
This group should lobby against the idea defended by telephone operators, who are asking the government for a rule where part of the network expansion costs would be passed on to content or application providers.
According to Alliance representatives, this proposed additional fee for using the network puts internet access in Brazil at risk.
The defense of this fee lacks evidence and has the potential to negatively affect the entire digital ecosystem and put Brazil’s open internet at risk.
The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) should launch a public consultation on the topic to gather opinions not only from operators, but also from society.
However, the Alliance warns that, if implemented, this additional charge could open a loophole for operators to charge additional remuneration for any service that generates data traffic over the internet.
Many operators say that YouTube, Netflix and other streaming services are responsible for much of the internet traffic. Therefore, they ask that a fee be charged to companies as a way of paying for infrastructure expansion.
However, the Alliance mentions that this rate can affect several sectors:
cloud computing,
streaming service,
distance education,
digital health and telemedicine and
artificial intelligence.
This fee has also been challenged in other countries and recently the European telecommunications body (Berec) warned of the potential harm to consumers and internet innovation.
In such a scenario, the entire digital economy – especially the consumer public – would suffer the effect of an internet divided into classes, more expensive and of lower quality. This is because the resources that could be applied to innovation for Brazilians would have to be reallocated to pay a fee – says the Alliance.
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