Bring OTTs Under Light Touch Licencing Regime In Telecom Bill: COAI To Govt

The telecom industry body, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has said that it has asked the government to bring over-the-top (OTT) communication apps under light-touch licencing regime. It added that the OTT communications apps should compensate telecom carriers for using their networks.

The industry body has further requested the government to clearly define what ‘communication services’ entail in the Telecom Bill, 2022, and remove any ambiguity.

The comment comes shortly after COAI announced that it is working on a revenue-sharing model between telecom networks and OTT apps. In this, COAI has hinted at an ‘interconnect charge’ (say network access charge) to be paid directly to the telecom operators based on the user traffic.

Under the light-touch regulation framework, the industry body has also suggested that these internet-based services should not be considered to be owned and controlled by the central government.

While COAI has been adamant about umbrella regulations, the present comment for less government control was previously mimicked by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which had said that OTTs should not be independent of the central government because these services use the existing spectrum only.

The draft telecom Bill was open for discussion until November 20, 2022, and saw a major pushback from the industry over the ambiguity in definitions.

Since the Bill expands its scope to telecom services and networks, many telecom industry stakeholders have argued for the inclusion of OTT communication services, internet-based communications, internet and broadband services and even DTH services. 

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is still seeking clarity of definitions and wants the Bill to exclude the inclusion of DTH and broadcasting services.

For OTT services, IAMAI, TRAI (telecom regulatory authority of India), Digital rights groups Access Now and the IFF (Internet Freedom Foundation) have opposed the inclusion of OTT communications apps in the telecom Bill.