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After conquering the online shopping industry and becoming a full-fledged Hollywood brand, it seems Amazon is thinking about becoming an ISP. The company is reportedly eyeing European customers to bring high-speed internet to for now because U.S. laws apparently prevent the merchant giant from setting up shop to serve Americans as an internet provider. On that note, it seems Amazon is planning on doing this without actually building its own network.
The news was first broken by The Information, where a person familiar with the situation is saying that providing internet service to European customers will also allow Amazon to bundle that service with their video streaming product on Prime. It’s a similar setup where cable companies will provide homes with internet access along with TV plans.
As for the decision to target Europe as the first place to provide their internet service, it could primarily have something to do with the current laws in the U.S., Ars Technica notes. Right now, Amazon is not thinking about building its own network, which means that the only alternative is to get that internet connection from other companies.
In Europe, ISPs are required by law to open their networks to competing companies, effectively allowing their rivals to feed off of them. In the U.S., this is just not the case. The ISPs themselves can make the decision to share their network with other companies, but no law compels them to do so. This is what prevents Amazon from becoming an ISP without its own network in America.
Giant carriers and telcos have been lobbying for decades to have a monopoly over the industry. If the FCC or anyone should even bring up the matter of forcing ISPs to open their networks to rivals in the U.S., these lobbyists would likely raise a huge ruckus, Engadget notes.
