Telcos and OTT players at loggerheads again on regulation

Kolkata: India’s top telcos are at loggerheads with big tech companies with the likes of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) calling on the regulator to push over-the-top (OTT) players to contribute to the creation of India’s 5G network infrastructure. They have suggested that this be done by bringing OTT communication service providers under the unified license (UL) regime.

Tech companies, though, have rejected telcos’ claims of OTT players free riding over telecoms network infrastructure, saying OTT service providers, on the contrary, have contributed to growth of telco revenues. They have also warned any move to impose onerous regulatory compliances — meant for telcos — would discourage OTTs from investing in innovation and new tech, and compel them to charge consumers for services that are now free.