Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica is considering plans to charge search engines including Google and Yahoo for the bandwith they consume across the network.
Speaking in Bilbao, Telefonica President Cesar Alierta suggested that major search organisations were benefitting from significant amounts of free bandwidth to the cost of telecoms providers.
Telefonica operates across Spain as well as much of Latin America. The organisation considers that its investment in in the network and its ongoing maintenance is benefitting the search engines which are profiting as a result.
In suggesting that things will have to change, Telefonica admitted that ideas to refresh the commercial relationships between networks and search providers had been discussed before, but that market pressures being felt within the telecoms industry are still a cause for concern [Simple Thoughts].
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