Tech Giants Force Operators to Invest in Infrastructure

Orange CEO Heidemann, speaking at a conference in Aix-en-Provence, said phone companies want tech giants to share the cost of building networks

Big Tech forces phone companies to invest heavily in improving networks amid rising internet traffic without helping to cover costs, said Orange SA CEO Christel Heydemann.

She stated:

We are condemned to invest in infrastructure.

She added that network traffic is expected to “multiply by three or five” times in the next six years.

Heidemann said the future challenge will be to work with the big technology companies, which she said are "forcing certain behaviours" on their users.

Orange CFO Ramon Fernandez added that tech giants are "hardly participate in the deployment of infrastructure" when some “15 billion euros ($15.3 billion) of added investment will be required to absorb traffic growth” in Europe.

Meanwhile, in the spring, the EU began to work out whether big companies should participate in the 5G infrastructure deployment. However, there is no final decision yet.