“All segments of the internet ecosystem should have the opportunity to make fair returns in a competitive marketplace,” says the GSMA. Translation: a few hyperscale app providers who represent a majority of the traffic on ISP networks should pay interconnection fees as do telcos.
The basic interconnection payment principle is that terminating traffic uses network resources, and receiving networks are therefore entitled to compensation. The idea is fundamentally that traffic sources (sending networks) owe money to traffic sinks (receiving networks).
What does this remind you of? Former SBC chairman Ed Whitacre said in 2005, referring to VoIP providers: “Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it.”By the end of the year SBC had completed its acquisition of AT&T.
“So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using,” he said.
Separately, Whitacre also said “Nobody gets a free ride, that’s all.” Also, he said “I think the content providers should be paying for the use of the network.”
Nearly two decades later, it appears app provider payments to telcos for use of access networks might expand from South Korea to Europe and then possibly elsewhere.
One needs patience in the global connectivity business. Some developments take decades to reach fruition, whether that is artificial intelligence, the metaverse, cloud computing, the end of network neutrality or replacement of copper access with fiber facilities.
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