O2 Wants To Charge Web Companies For Mobile Data Usage

O2 Want to Charge Content Providers

Mobile operator O2 wants ‘big web companies’ to carry the cost of mobile data use for their users as the infrastructure needed to meet future demand will be so expensive.

Speaking at the Westminster Eforum’s Building 21st Century Broadband conference, O2′s chief executive Ronan Dunne said that being able to charge content providers to offer their websites and services on its network is a necessary move in order to keep networks running efficiently, as data usage dramatically increases.

“If consumers alone are paying, it’s hard to see where the incentive is for content providers to use networks efficiently,” Dunne said, adding that he wanted “big companies” to pay their share.

Due to the increased popularity in smartphones and other mobile devices, mobile data usage in the UK is going through a period of high growth, with social networking and video sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twiteer providing the bulk of the traffic.

During the event, Dunne suggested that some content providers might want to “pay for carriage themselves” in order to provide a better quality of service over a mobile network than their rivals provide – referring to this process as the “evolving the ecosystem” around content delivery.

“Competition will help us ensure that democracy does continue to thrive on the internet, even if we do have to manage traffic,” he said. “Networks can’t under any economic model presume to have unlimited data capability. Part of the solution is to move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’.”

This isn’t the first time O2 have expressed a desire to charge content providers for carrying their traffic, with both TalkTalk and BT also keen to get in on the action, with both providers currently lobbying against net neutrality rules that would prevent such moves.