COAI wants OTT players to pay telecom giants for internet services

The Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) has urged the government to establish a legal framework that ensures over-the-top (OTT) players pay a fair share to telecom and mobile service providers for the services they utilise.

It also argued that the telcos’ demand for reasonable ‘usage charge’ from OTT providers, which are responsible for substantial data traffic in India, is both fair and rational. India is currently witnessing the world’s fastest 5G rollout, with telecom service providers having deployed more than 3.3 lakh 5G base transceiver stations (BTSs).