It is not an opportune time to recommend a comprehensive regulatory framework for OTT services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Monday, and said that the current laws and regulations are sufficient and anything beyond is not necessary.
In this case, OTT services are companies such as WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram. It refers to applications which are accessed over the internet but are on an telecom operator’s network, without being subject to the same regulations as telecom operators.
"It is not an opportune moment to recommend a comprehensive regulatory framework for various aspects of services referred to as OTT services, beyond the extant laws and regulations prescribed presently," Trai said in a statement.
This comes after telecom companies asked for OTT players to be regulated as well, as their functions are similar without the licencing obligations and levies that telecom players have. With the TRAI saying the status quo remains, that doesn’t change as well.
It said that it will intervene at a later time if necessary, and that market forces “may be allowed to respond to the situation without prescribing any regulatory intervention”. The TRAI said that the matter can be looked into again when there is clarity on international jurisdictions, particularly the study undertaken by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“No regulatory interventions are required in respect of issues related with privacy and security of OTT services at the moment,” it said.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom companies like Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Jio, said that it had been hopeful that the TRAI would rectify and address “long pending market anomalies once and for all”.
“Without a resolution of these issues TSPs will continue to be at a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis OTT Communication Service Providers,” COAI director general S P Kochhar said in a statement.
“We are of the view that these OTT services are substitutable to the services provided by the TSPs and hence a case of non-level playing field exists,” he said.
Trai had come out with a discussion paper on regulatory framework for such services in November 2018 where it had sought industry's views on multiple issues.
These issues were similarity and substitutability of telecom service providers and OTT services, regulatory imbalance and non-level playing field between these two types of service providers, economic aspects, interoperability, lawful interception of OTT services as well as access of emergency services from OTT.
This, COAI said, posed important issues, but none of these have been addressed by TRAI in their current recommendations.
Kochar added that security issues, such as lawful interception which TSPs comply with, are not applicable on OTT providers 'which remain a threat to the national security'.