In July this year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), at the request of the government, invited a comprehensive consultation on the need and possible mechanisms for regulation of Over-The-Top (OTT) services. It seems to have stirred up a hornet’s nest.
For more than a decade now, telecom companies have seen revenue from traditional streams such as voice calls and Short Message Service (SMS) come under pressure, as competing OTT services are often free. At the same time, they have had to invest heavily in upgrading their infrastructure to handle increased data traffic, without necessarily seeing an equivalent rise in revenue. It is also their lament that OTT services are not subject to the same level of taxation and licensing fees, leading to an uneven playing field.
On the flip side, the use of OTT services has led to a surge in data consumption, which is a growing revenue stream for telecom companies.
