It has been a long standing demand of telecom players to bring OTT players under the ambit of regulation
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) plans to issue a consultation paper on over the top (OTT) players such as WhatsApp, Skype, this month to decide whether such players should come under the ambit of any regulation or not.
The draft of the consultation paper has already been prepared, and it will be finalised and released in a week or two, a senior official from the regulator told DNA Money.
It has been a long standing demand of telecom players to bring OTT players under the ambit of regulation. Their main concern lies in the fact that telecom operators are subject to licence fee, number of levies and spectrum charges while OTT players ride on their network without any costs.
At one point of time, voice and SMS revenues contributed to about 60-70% of revenues of telecom players, but after facilities from WhatsApp, Skype and more recently voice calls being made virtually free with entry of Reliance Jio, the revenues has taken a substantial hit and is on a constant decline. Also, with the uptake of 4G services, more and more consumers are shifting towards data services.
OTT are basically applications riding on internet network. The issue here is to decide whether any regulatory imbalance exists or not.
The consultation paper to be issued now will be a completely new one, overriding the one issued in 2015. But the comments received that time will be considered too, the official said. The regulator that time only addressed the issue of Net neutrality and differential pricing access of data, leaving out OTT aspect.
However, there are two camps on this issue. Some say OTT players should be regulated while others say this will stifle innovation in the industry. The OTT industry in a way contributes to an increase in data consumption for telecom players, experts say.
While issuing recommendations on Net neutrality in November 2017, Trai had it will issue a separate consultation process on OTT players and issues around their regulation.
TO CONTROL OR NOT?
- Some say OTT players should be regulated while others say this will stifle innovation in the industry
- The OTT industry in a way contributes to an increase in data consumption for telecom players, experts say
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