Orange provider forced Google to pay for traffic

Telecommunications company France Telecom-Orange receives compensation from Google for transmitting “large volumes of traffic” through its channels. Orange CEO Stephen Richard (Stéphane Richard) said this in an interview on the BFM Business TV channel, although he didn’t say how much Google specifically paid (maybe there are symbolic amounts there).

Here, the exact amount is not so important as the fact that Google reconciled itself with the violation of the principle of net neutrality - and refused to fight the “extortionist”. By paying the provider, she encourages greed and sets a bad example to other ISPs. This creates a dangerous precedent when traffic from one site may be “more neutral” than another.

Owners of communication channels (telecoms) have long tried to claim payment from content generators, who allegedly make a profit at the expense of someone else, without investing in the data transmission infrastructure.

Until now, the status quo was preserved: the operators took money only from the end users and gave them any traffic. Google generates half the traffic on the Orange network? Well and good. Thus, he develops the business of the provider, helps him to attract subscribers. These are the principles of Google since 2006 . The company has always declared the need for network neutrality, on which the Internet was viewed as a common information highway, to which both small and large players have equal access. Now the company for some reason has renounced its own principles.
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French Internet service providers and even state authorities have long been looking askance at Google. For example, since January 1, 2013, the second largest Internet provider in the country, Free.fr, has enabled the Google Adsense Internet advertising filter for its users. Internet business representatives and free content site owners expressed a logical protest by the fact that they are deprived of a source of livelihood. Surprisingly, the Minister of Digital Economy of France Fleur Pellerin (Fleur Pellerin) expressed a positive assessment of the decision of the Internet provider Free. “Now there are real problems about the distribution of costs between content providers, in particular, video content generators, which require a lot of traffic, and telecom operators,” Fleur Pelerin said. “In France and in Europe, we need to find a more consistent way to integrate Internet giants into national ecosystems.” The minister promised to convene a meeting with the participation of interested parties in order to find a compromise.

The director of Orange said that Google pays them deductions for transferring their traffic for at least a year, and this money is spent on maintaining and developing communication channels. In this light, Free.fr actions become more understandable. The second-largest provider in the country probably found out about Orange and Google's secret deal - and also wanted similar conditions, which is quite fair.

One way or another, but the news about the agreement between Orange and Google is a very sad event for anyone who considers network neutrality to be an important condition for the development of a free Internet. Now we can expect that other telecoms will turn to Google with claims to compensate for the transfer of “large volumes of traffic”, especially in countries where Google receives large profits from the display of contextual advertising.