Legislator Natalia Díaz from Movimiento Libertario party, expressed that a bill that would force Netflix and Spotify to pay operators (ICE, Claro and Movistar) for using the network would affect users.
The initiative was presented by legislator Jorge Arguedas, from Frente Amplio, who said that the entertainment companies have created applications whose commercialization generates “millions of millions” of profits, but the operators “receive nothing in return”.
Therefore, Arguedas proposed that the companies should pay a fee, which should be set by the Superintendence of Telecommunications (SUTEL).
Díaz explained that the fee would eventually be transferred by the operators of those networks to the users, making the service more expensive.
In a way it would restrict the use of these platforms for users, which violates the principle of neutrality established in the National Telecommunications Development Plan to 2021 and will also impact the FTA between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic. I will do everything in my power to ensure that this proposal does not proceed. That would put us in a retrograde position in the development and access to information technologies,”
concluded Díaz.