Industry stakeholders in India have urged the government to establish a legal framework that mandates large traffic-generating over-the-top (OTT) players to pay a fair and proportionate fee to telecom and mobile service providers for the services they utilize. Telcos have demanded a reasonable "usage charge" from OTT providers, asserting that this is both fair and rational. India is currently undergoing the world's fastest 5G rollout, with more than 330,000 5G base transceiver stations already deployed by telecom service providers.
Telecom companies have been investing heavily in deploying networks and providing connectivity across the country. However, OTT players, which offer bandwidth-heavy services and generate disproportionately high traffic, have not contributed to network expenses. Many of these OTTs are owned by large global corporations that earn revenue from both consumers and advertisers but do not contribute significantly to the Indian economy.
In rural areas where it is not economically viable for mobile network operators to provide services, OTTs have led to increased demand for data services and bandwidth, with low average revenue per unit (ARPU) not justifying the network expenses. Therefore, telecom service providers are shifting their revenue generation focus towards networks, applications, and innovative services, including OTTs.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) emphasized the need for a fair and proportionate charge to be paid to network providers by high-bandwidth OTT applications that carry heavy traffic. Such applications often require services like HD video streaming and downloading. COAI also noted that general data tariffs may suffice for low-bandwidth applications that do not generate significant traffic.
COAI and other stakeholders argue that a regulatory mechanism should be established to ensure that OTT players contribute fairly to the Indian market, given their substantial earnings and the impact on network infrastructure.
Overall, the call for a legal framework and fair charges aims to strike a balance between the interests of telecom service providers and OTT players in the rapidly evolving Indian telecommunications landscape.
ALSO READ: Could Samsung introduce the Galaxy Smart Ring at Galaxy S24 launch event? Here's what we know so far
Inputs from IANS
