The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is working on discussion paper on OTT service providers that could implement charges for over-the-top (OTT) players of apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Skype etc, according to a report from Business Today. It wants them to pay connectivity charges to telecom companies and share revenue with the government as well.
According to the report, a senior official with the DoT said to Business Today that the OTT players would anyway have to follow the law of the land. DoT may ask them to put their servers in India as they get connected to any telecom network in India without getting themselves registered, which is also a security concern.
TRAI held a seminar on Tuesday to discuss about Regulatory Framework for OTT Services, issues related to OTT such as new developments in OTT, impact of OTT on TSPs and their countermeasures, legal and regulatory framework for OTT. Indian telcos have been voicing against these OTT players for some time now. OTT services like WhatsApp is cutting into operator’s and government’s revenue since SMS and voice call usage are coming down due to apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Skype.
In the meeting held between telecom operators and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), T.V. Ramachandran on behalf of telecom operators said there are many regulations binding on operators they don’t exist for OTT players, according to PTI report. Later in the meeting, TRAI Secretary Sudhir Gupta said that the idea of the meeting was not to protect the revenue of the telecom operators, but to understand whether any kind of regulations were needed on OTT services, says the report.
WhatsApp already moved to subscription model, but old users who have purchased it before can still enjoy the app for free. Skype, Viber and other OTT apps offer their service for free for calls over the internet.