Free telecom operator, owned by Iliad group wants to determine Google and its competitors to help finance telecommunication networks and initiated a measure to block advertisements in the online environment.
Xavier Niel, owner of Free announced a move that would result in substantial losses for Internet giants. Thanks to a recently introduced applications the company blocks the online advertising for its more than 5 million subscribers, writes Le Figaro.
Therefore, Free customers who browse the internet on personal computers or tablets will not watch on the sites they access any advertisement, commercials managed largely by the U.S. giant Google. This action created dissatisfaction among many publishers who see this as a threat to their future revenues.
What caused Free to make such a decision? According to industry specialists, Free decision is motivated by the desire to determine giant company Google to pay for the use of its networks. To support the heavy traffic, operators must constantly invest in infrastructure and networks resizing.
Free, like other telecom operators, aimed to make the largest advertising companies, which send a huge volume of data, to pay for the use of its networks. Hitting the advertising industry, the telecom operator indirectly is attacking Google, the company that manages the bulk of online advertising.
A few months ago, Free initiated without offering any explanation of similar action against the U.S. company by restricting the speed of YouTube, Google Video platform.
“Free operator action can be justified, but it should be done in a legal way, Free shouldn’t be allowed to do justice itself,” said Edouard Barreiro, a member of the association UFC-Que Choisir.
The revenue in France for Google stands at about €1.6 billion, and the measure from Free would generate to the search giant a daily loss of around one million euros, according to Market estimates.
The French government is preparing a law that will force the online content and services companies, including Google, to pay for the traffic carried by telecommunications networks, said earlier this week Fleur Pellerin, Junior Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation, and the Digital Economy.
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