The European Union telecommunications commissioner, Viviane
Reding, distanced herself Monday from a proposal by President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France to impose a tax on World Wide Web and mobile
phone access, saying it might not be the best way to expand access
to new media.

At a conference in Munich, Reding said that the proposal, made
during a speech that month, ran contrary to her vision of a Europe
where borderless and inexpensive access to Net and cellphone
networks was the standard.

“I believe the taxation of the new technology might not be the
right way in order to reach at the goal of seamless use of new
communication by all citizens,” Reding said during an interview. She
characterized Sarkozy’s proposal as “the beginning, not the end of
the discussion.”

There has been a wide range of reaction to Sarkozy’s proposal,
part of a plan to use the new revenue to counterbalance a ban on
advertising on French public broadcasters. Reding has been
unexpectedly successful in moving her pro-consumer proposals through
the

political process, much to the dismay of many of the largest
telecommunications companies in Europe. Withholding her support for
what could amount to another cost to the industry should allay some
corporate anxiety.

With details of the Sarkozy proposal — who will be taxed, and how
much the tax might be — still unknown, established digital giants
like Google have been careful not to comment.

But European technology entrepreneurs, invited by the German
publishing giant Hubert Burda Media to the third annual Digital,
Life, Design conference in Munich, said that the Sarkozy plan
restricted a tip of meddling by the state.

“If Sarkozy wants to kick France out of the digital age, soon after he
should go ahead,” said Lars Hinrichs, founder and chief executive
of the German online business and social platform Xing, which he
said has had difficulties breaking into the French market.

Tariq Krim, head of Netvibes, an Net services company based
in Paris, said the proposal sent the wrong signal…

Orginal post by Top Tech News