Industry associations, civil society groups, and consumer organizations have joined forces to express their reservations regarding the consultation paper released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) concerning the regulation of over-the-top (OTT) communication services and the potential selective banning of certain OTT services.
In their submission, the Broadband India Forum (BIF) highlighted the positive impact of OTTs on India’s app economy and firmly asserts that the current regulatory framework, including the IT Act of 2000 and related legislation, adequately regulates OTT services.
BIF’s recommendation is rooted in the belief that the existing regulatory environment has played a pivotal role in fostering the robust growth of India’s app economy, contributing to one of the world’s highest annual app download rates. According to them, introducing new regulatory frameworks could disrupt the current competitive landscape and jeopardize both consumer advantages and innovative developments.
“We hope that the regulator and the Government will allow market forces to operate freely, incentivising growth and progress in this vital sector. TSPs can compete freely, and OTTs should not face restrictions in favour of TSPs,” said BIF president T V Ramachandran.
As many as 11 consumer groups including the Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), Consumer Guidance Society, Consumer Guild, etc, have said that the proposal on selective banning coupled with regulating carriage and content would lead to overregulation and would create regulatory uncertainty in the Indian market.
According to Amol Kulkarni and Shiksha Srivastava of CUTS the proposed framework for selective banning of OTT applications and services will be a case of overregulation, and will have unintended consequences of quelling innovation.
One of the concerns cited by these organisations is that OTT service providers are already regulated under the IT Act 2000 which will be replaced by the upcoming Digital India Act (DIA). Therefore, such consultations should form part of Digital India Act and any other additional consultations by regulators like TRAI will also lead to overlap of regulatory structure.
“Such a consultation on selective banning should form a part of the consultations over the DIA. Moreover, the technicality of how the same can be undertaken remains unclear as well,” CUTS said, adding that if the process, including the appropriate authority to monitor such selective banning is not clearly laid down, it will result in regulatory uncertainty and further overregulation.
Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) in its submission has also raised concerns around net neutrality and consumer well-being in the long run as a result of mandated collaborative framework between OTT service providers and licensed TSPs that may lead to the creation of a system where TSPs can demand compensation from OTT service providers in the form of revenue sharing or network usage fees.
Further adding that TSPs may also create revenue sharing exemptions for their own OTT services (especially given that most TSPs have ventured into the OTT space as well and this can lead to concerns under both the principle of net neutrality, as well as competition law. Any further regulation would harm market competition in the digital services industry.