The challenge of telecom maintenance costs extends beyond Nigeria, with US tech companies and India’s top telecom operators clashing over internet service regulations.
This centres around the bid by Indian telecom networks to bring over-the-top (OTT) services, like those provided by Amazon, Google, and Meta, under the same regulatory framework that governs traditional telecom services.
The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), representing major tech players such as Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Spotify, has strongly opposed these regulatory changes.
In a recent submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the AIC noted that OTT services should not be subject to the same regulations as telecom operators due to fundamental differences in technology and function.
Unlike telecom providers, OTT services operate on the application layer and do not have access to key telecom resources like spectrum or public network interconnectivity.
The AIC said that OTT services are not substitutes for traditional telecom services, highlighting their unique features such as group chats and in-app content sharing. The organisation warned that including OTT services in the proposed regulatory framework could sabotage net neutrality principles and negatively impact consumers.
India’s telecom giants, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea, have been calling for these regulatory changes. They argue that OTT providers should contribute to the costs of network development, given the huge amounts of data their services generate.
These Indian telecom operators, struggling with low revenue per user and heavy investments in 5G infrastructure, see regulatory intervention as a way to improve their financial margins.
However, the AIC countered that OTT services have, in fact, boosted data consumption and revenue for telecom operators, dismissing the notion that these services are “free-riding” on telecom networks.
The coalition also pointed out that OTT services are already regulated under India’s Information Technology Act and related rules, and that further regulation under the Telecommunications Act would exceed the law’s intended scope.
Not limited to India, similar discussions are taking place in regions like South Korea and Europe, where telecom operators are also seeking financial contributions from large tech companies.
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