Govt's decides not to regulate OTT players, comes as a huge relief : report

OTT players would not be subject to the licencing regime under the new telecom bill. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will be in charge of Disney+, Hotstar, Netflix, and other similar broadcasting applications

OTT players are not currently being considered as part of the definition of telecommunication services by the government. As a result, OTT players won't be subject to the same regulations as telecom service providers (TSPs). The OTT companies will no longer be required to pay any kind of fair share fee to the telcos, which is a tremendous deal for them. The question of whether OTT players like WhatsApp, Telegram, and others would have to pay a fee to the telcos out of their revenue is now settled.

The government does not want to include OTT in the definition of telecom services since it does not fit the concept of "telegraph," as stated in an ET report. Any device, substance, or equipment employed or capable of being used for the transmission or receipt of writing, signals, signs, images, and more is referred to as a telegraph. OTT is not included in this. The government intends to keep the meaning of telegraph while replacing the outdated telegraph legislation.

Last Thursday,Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), urged the government to establish a legal framework to ensure that over-the-top (OTT) players who generate significant amounts of traffic pay telecom and mobile service providers a fair and proportionate share for the services they offer. They added that the telcos’ demand for a reasonable “usage charge” from OTT providers is reasonable and fair.

“While telcos carry their traffic of voice and data, majority of the use of these networks is done by OTT players who load these networks with massive amounts of data which they carry to the end users. “They get it from content providers, put it on their platform and deliver it to the end users without paying anything to the network providers who have created the network for them to roll on,” COAI Director General S P Kochhar said.

However, the OTT players would not be subject to the licencing regime under the new telecom bill. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will be in charge of Disney+, Hotstar, Netflix, and other similar broadcasting applications, while the Ministry of Electronics and IT will oversee other OTT players.

The government currently does not see a necessity to regulate OTT apps as telecom services. In the future, if such a need arises, it can be addressed. The Broadband India Forum and the Mobile Association of India benefit from this, among other industry organisations. The new telecom bill is anticipated to be introduced during the parliamentary winter session.