Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft, IBM Join Hands Against TRAI’s New Rules

Cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft, VMWare and IBM, are planning to join hands against telecom regulator TRAI’s recommendations to increase oversight on the sector.  

According to the proposed rules, TRAI had recommended telecom service providers to compulsorily become members of an industry body under the Department of Telecommunication (DoT). It also suggested that telecom companies will not be allowed to provide any infrastructure to any cloud service provider who declines to join the new grouping.

The cloud companies are now planning to petition the department of telecom (DoT) through industry groupings — National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

TRAI had in October 2019 sought public views on parameters for cloud providers.

NASSCOM had in its reply to TRAI’s initial recommendations, said that the proposed regulation was over and above the “existing regime”. “It indicates that the DoT would likely exercise regulatory control over CSPs indirectly through the industry bodies,” it said. 

The US India Business Council (USIBC) last year had said that there was more than sufficient regulation of cloud services in the industry and Indian cloud service providers (CSPs) should not be subject to the new regulation. 

“Contrary to widespread misconception, CSPs in India does not exist in a legal vacuum, and are amply governed by various regulations including MeitY’s IT Act and MeghRaj, Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) TSP (telecom service providers) and OSP (other service providers) regulations,” it said.

According to ET, NASSCOM, Association of Competitive Telecom Operators, ITI (Information Technology Industry) Council, a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents firms from the information and communications technology industry, and COAI will write to the telecom department voicing industry concerns by the end of this week.

COAI had said last year that CSPs do not fall within the same category of service providers as defined in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 owing to the fact that CSPs merely use the existing connectivity provided by telecom service providers and do not constitute telecom service providers by themselves.

A CII and KPMG report said that cloud technology, enabled by IT and bolstered by a sound telecommunications network, can herald innumerable solutions to enable telemedicine, set up remote classrooms, etc.

NASSCOM research says that the Indian cloud computing market is currently valued at $2.2 Bn and is expected to grow at 30% a year to $7.1 Bn by 2022.