KPN joins demand for Google to help fund networks

The head of Dutch telco KPN has revived the thorny issue of whether web giants should contribute towards the wireless networks which carry their services. With mobile data increasingly providing the major growth drivers for firms like Google and Apple, they should help to upgrade the networks that support that, argued CEO Eelco Blok in an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.This reignites a debate which was sparked earlier this year by similar statements from France Telecom and others. At the time, the leading European operators, including FT, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telecom Italia, were reported to have formed an informal alliance primarily to lobby European Commission regulators and present a united front to the over the top players, particularly Google.Although these giants do periodically call on regulators to clip Google's wings in mobile web services, in recent months their attitude seems to have softened and, publicly at least, carriers like Orange have been more eager to work with their web rivals than engage in a head-to-head. But Blok is less conciliatory, saying: "They use our networks without having to make any investment. Cheap Ugg Boots This is an untenable situation in the telecom sector." However, his argument ran into the usual sinking sands which lurk round this debate, the actual mechanisms that might be involved. "I think that companies should contribute, but I do not know how," he concluded.Blok's comments seem to have been triggered by the unexpectedly rapid uptake of the WhatsApp instant messaging service in The Netherlands, which has had a serious impact on KPN's SMS revenues, though he also cited the network costs and traffic loads incurred by Apple iMessage and Google Talk. "Last summer, zero per cent of our customer base used WhatApp, now almost all of our younger smartphone customers have the service installed," he complained.Like other carriers, KPN is warning such users that they will not be able to have their cake and eat it for much longer - data charges will have to rise to provide the same quality of service, as traffic loads mushroom. KPN Mobile's consumer director, Marco Visser, recently calculated that, to maintain mobile network investment levels - and if there were no contribution from over-the-top players - customers would need to spend an average of €40 per month, while they currently spend only €24 in The Netherlands.