Amazon Web Services Illustrates the Telecom/Hyperscaler Double Standard: Strand
Amazon Web Services inexplicably gets a pass on the regulatory standards that far smaller enterprises such as telecom providers work under, Strand Consult's John Strand wrote Tuesday. AWS consistently lobbies against requirements for it to financially support more accessible and resilient access networks, including investments in broadband infrastructure and connectivity vouchers for low-income users, he said. There's a discussion to be had about whether AWS operates "a parallel internet" of fiber-optic backbones, routers and interconnection points and "whether these elements constitute 'telecommunications' under U.S. law." AWS likely is already eligible to contribute to USF but doesn't due to FCC forbearance, which lets AWS claim a self-provider exemption, he noted.
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Telecom providers face "a mountain of regulatory obligations," ranging from number portability and interconnection requirements to service-quality obligations, and regulators often pretend that analogous obligations exist for cloud providers, Strand said. However, in practice, "enforcing such rules across a hyperscaler’s sprawling, global cloud portfolio is extremely difficult and cumbersome." Strand said AWS' refusal to engage in social obligations, such as funding network resilience, "undermines the public good of a reliable, resilient, and accessible Internet ecosystem."