With the rise of instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and others, telcos had started to make noise
against the rampant adoption of these services. In April, the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) disclosed to be working on
discussion paper that looks at the impact of Over-The-Top (OTT) players
such as messaging apps. Looks like, TRAI is on its way to find a
solution by putting a fee on such apps.
According to a report by Business Today,
TRAI held a seminar to initiate the process to bring in a regulation
for providers of apps like WhatsApp and Viber to pay connectivity
charges to telecom companies and share revenue with the government.
The key pointers of discussion at the seminar were ‘new developments
in OTT, impact of OTT on telecom services providers and their counter
measures, legal and regulatory framework for OTT’. It also plans to
release a discussion paper. However, the report further points out it
may not pose major restrictions on such apps.
The good old ‘SMS’ and even phone calls have been suffering due to
the rise in popularity of these apps. Several telcos including Bharti
Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, reportedly want app providers
to pay a connectivity charge to make up for the losses in revenue, since
many apps replace core revenue streams such as SMSes or phone calls.
The report points out that telcos currently ‘lose around Rs 5,000
crore annually’ because of such free apps . This figure is expected to
cross Rs 16,400 crore in the next two years, as the number of users
opting for data will increase.
