COAI for Bringing All OTT Players Under Regulation

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that uniform regulations should be adopted to regulate all OTT players, including communication over players such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, and those such as Netflix that consumed huge bandwidth. It said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) should define the OTT communication services in its draft telecom bill to ensure that there is a level-playing field for all.

COAI said the same service and same rules are the foundation for fair and healthy competition. 

It also said telecom service providers (TSPs) invest massive amounts in creating network Infrastructure and they are incurring huge operational expenses in terms of meeting various regulatory compliances, TSPs also pay exorbitant levies and taxes in terms of license fees, SUC (spectrum usage charge), GST, etc.

On the other hand, OTT communication service providers such as WhatsApp and Telegram who are enjoying huge direct and indirect benefits and revenues by utilising the TSPs’ networks are not subjected to such taxes and levies, thus causing loss to the government exchequer.

“There is a need to ensure a level playing field among all technologies, i.e. same service rules with respect to OTT communication services so that fair and healthy competition prevails in the industry,” said COAI in a statement.

“It has been erroneously suggested that telecom services and OTT applications do not operate on the same layer, when in fact; services such as calls (voice/video) whether provided by the TSPs or the OTT apps, operate on the same layer, essentially riding on the network layer,” said COAI in a statement.

COAI said OTT players consume a big amount of bandwidth, which puts pressure on the network infrastructure established by TSPs. At the same time, OTT players gain massive direct and indirect benefits without incurring any additional costs.

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