By Mathieu Rosemain The European Union’s executive body will launch a consultation on whether tech giants should bear some of the costs of Europe’s telecoms network by the end of the first quarter of 2023, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Friday. Europe’s telecoms operators have for long lobbied for a financial contribution of US tech firm’s such as Alphabet’s Google, Meta’s Facebook and Netflix, saying that they use huge part of the internet traffic. “We also need to review whether the regulation is adapted with the ‘GAFAs’ (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) for example, which use the bandwidth and the telecom operator,” Breton told reporters, speaking in French. GAFA is the French acronym to designate the US biggest tech firms, including Netflix. Breton said that this particular issue, or so-called potential “fair share” of US tech companies in the financing of the European telecoms and internet infrastructure, will be part of a wider consultation. • Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain,; Editing by GV De Clercq and Tomasz Janowski.
A global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, Intracom Telecom has announced its complete exit from the Russian market in the framework of the European Union sanctions on Russia imposed on February 25th 2022. In parallel, Intracom Telecom has reached the deal on selling the 100 per cent of its Russian subsidiary, Intracom SVYAZ LLC, on September 5th 2022.
Acting CEO of the Intracom Telecom Group, Kartlos Edilashvili stated: “We had already halted all our businesses in Russia since the beginning of the EU sanctions on February 25, 2022 and by finalizing this transaction we are completing our exit process. Intracom Telecom will continue focusing on its expansion plan to serve more customers around the globe, addressing their telecom and ICT business needs with Company’s innovative products, solutions and services portfolio.”
Intracom Svyaz LLC was a subsidiary of the Intracom Telecom Group, since its establishment in 2002, while the Group has had a long-standing presence in the Russian Federation through its representative office in Moscow since 1998.
