Telecom players lobby for levy on OTT platforms

India’s telecom players have renewed their offensive against OTT platforms such as WhatsApp and Netflix for riding piggyback on their networks to reach out to end-users.

The Cellular Operators Association of India, which represents the interests of the telecom players, has written to the DoT secretary lobbying for their right to levy a usage charge on the OTT platforms.

The telecom players have pointed out to their investments in creating infrastructure and OTTs — which operate outside the pale of any regulation — are able to not only leech revenues from the telecom players through their services but also pay no fee to the networks.