A new paper commissioned by INCOMPAS quantifies the investment of the tech industry, particularly by streaming services, in internet infrastructure and pegs it at a whopping $833 billion over the past decade, saying that saved internet-service providers billions of dollars.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, also provided support for the report, conducted by Analysys Mason.
The report comes as Big Tech is under pressure around the world to pony up network usage fees. In the U.S., some want edge providers to pay regulatory fees to the Federal Communications Commission, pointing to the benefit they get from broadband infrastructure and suggesting they have done so without sufficiently paying for the privilege.
The report says otherwise and adds that such usage fees could disrupt the internet ecosystem. "We find that the imposition of network usage fees would risk creating barriers to entry and growth for smaller and new CAPs [content and application providers]," it asserts.
The report documents that attempts by telecom network owners to "extract" payments from online services are unfounded and misguided, CCIA president Matt Schruers said.
The report suggests that investments by streaming services and others to get traffic closer to end users saves ISPs up to $6.4 billion per year.
"INCOMPAS and the authors of this study have now proven what we already knew: Content delivery and edge internet services have always paid to build out of the network, both through subscriptions to broadband providers and their own investments in network infrastructure," Public Knowledge president Chris Lewis said. "Any calls for network user fees is simply an effort to charge these companies twice to give internet users the content they are also paying to access." ■
