Dispute over costs: Meta cuts lines to Telekom
Meta and Telekom have been arguing over transmission fees for years. Now, Meta is taking action and cutting lines - what this means for Telekom customers.
(Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com)
The US company Meta has cut its lines – the so-called direct peering – to Deutsche Telekom and will in future route data to its users via transit partners. This means that users of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other Meta services could literally have a long line on the Deutsche Telekom network in future. Meta states that it hopes that Deutsche Telekom has made "appropriate efforts" to ensure that users are not disadvantaged.
The press release from Facebook's parent company is harsh on the German telecommunications company. It states that Deutsche Telekom is jeopardizing the open Internet and net neutrality. Furthermore, the practices of the German company set a dangerous precedent for the open Internet. Deutsche Telekom customers are being put behind a de facto payment barrier. If providers such as Meta did not pay, users' access to services would be restricted, according to Meta. However, Meta still hopes to reach an agreement with Telekom for the benefit of consumers.
Telekom explained in a statement that it had created sufficient capacity for the new transfer points. Its customers will be able to use Meta's services "in the usual quality". The rerouting of data traffic had already taken place on Wednesday night. Telekom accuses the US company of a "gross foul":
"Meta is once again abusing its superior negotiating power to discredit legitimate concerns of the European telecommunications industry and consumers and to avoid fair payment. This is not just about a difference of opinion between two companies, but about the question of whether the power of the strongest prevails on the Internet or whether there is a fair balance between all participants. We hope that this debate will not be carried out on the backs of the citizens. Even a company like Meta is not above the law."
Dispute over interconnect fees
The current step was preceded by years of disputes between Meta and Telekom. The dispute concerned fees that Telekom demanded from Meta in accordance with a contract for the transmission of data. Telekom had connected Meta to its network via 20 private interconnects since 2010 so that Meta services could be used over the shortest possible distance.
In 2020, Meta terminated the agreement and demanded significantly lower fees. When the two companies failed to reach an agreement, the US group suddenly claimed that the handover points that continued to exist during the talks were no longer being used for transit but for peering. This data exchange between peer networks usually takes place free of charge. However, Telekom continued to charge for the traffic and invoked the old contract, so that costs of 20 million euros accumulated within a few years. As Meta persistently refused to pay the bill, Telekom successfully sued –. In May 2024, the Cologne Regional Court ruled in its favor (LG Köln, 33 O 178/23). Meta and Telekom then began new negotiations, which have now ended without result.
Meta refers to international practice
Meta calls the fees demanded by Telekom "unprecedented and unacceptable". The company maintains free reciprocal relationships with "thousands of other telecommunications providers" worldwide. After all, both sides have their users, as the network operators provide their customers with a fast data path to the much-used Meta services. Meta also points to investments of 27 billion euros in digital infrastructure, from which Telekom also benefits.
However, Telekom is not alone in its opinion. EU network operators have long demanded a kind of data toll for large platform operators such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Netflix. They argued that their intensive use made an accelerated network expansion necessary. They should contribute to this. Most recently, they called for "regulatory vacations" and more requirements for content providers from the USA.
(mki)