Telecom operators in India have challenged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to provide a more level playing field for traditional operators against OTT players, according to reports.
According to the Economic Times of India, at a seminar organised by TRAI on “Regulatory Framework for OTT Services”, Vodafone’s TV Ramachandran said: “We want some kind of regulatory help to get a level playing field.
“There are so many regulations binding on us, but the same don’t exist for OTT players. We can do a lot more if [a] level playing field is given to us,” he said.
This uneven contest, Ramachandran argues, particularly involves interconnect charges, which OTT players don’t have to pay, for switching calls over the web outside India. The likes of WhatsApp and Skype, the operators asserted, should fall under the Indian Telegraph Act.
“The regulator must give some consideration”, Ramachandran added.
The TRAI, in response, argued the seminar was not to protect the revenues of operators, rather “to understand if there is any case of regulating such services,” according to TRAI secretary Sudhir Gupta.
It’s interesting to see Indian operators take a stand on this – or rather, to see the regulatory authorities give a soapbox to the pleas
It’s interesting to see Indian operators take a stand on this – or rather, to see the regulatory authorities give a soapbox to the telecom service providers. As reports note, operators have tried to breach this subject with regulators on several occasions, although Subho Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, argued it was “clear evidence that [the] relationship between OTT and telcos has failed.”
Ray added there was a double standard from operators when considering the previous VAS providers chipping away at their revenue streams.
It’s a conversation which has taken place many times across many countries. Last year the French telecoms regulator ARCEP (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes) called Skype out for not registering itself as a telco because it offered a “service that allows internet users located in France to call fixed and mobile numbers in France around the world using their computer or smartphone”, in line with the French Postal and Electronic Communications Code.
For the OTT players, there’s always an option to further cannibalise services, given WhatsApp only made the move into voice messaging a year ago, and is now building on that by integrating voice into platforms as diverse as Android Wear. For operators, there are new ways to make money – a recent Citrix consumer survey hinted that most users would engage more strongly with operators if sponsored data plans were more widespread.
What’s your opinion?
