India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly rejected demands by telcos to regulate OTT players like WhatsApp and Telegram under the same rules as telecoms companies, although they could still be regulated under other laws.
The debate stems from a consultation paper issued by the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in July 2023 at the DoT’s request to revisit the question of whether OTT services should be regulated. TRAI had ruled in 2020 that there was no need to do so.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has long argued that OTT players are unfairly competing against telcos and eating up bandwidth whilst getting a free ride on their networks, and should at least be made to share revenues or pay for telecoms infrastructure costs.
In its most recent submission to TRAI, the COAI claimed that OTT communication services were covered under the new Telecommunications Bill 2023 as an access service. As such, they should be regulated the same as telcos under the “same- service, same-rule principle”, the COAI said.
However, according to a report in ETTelecom on Monday, DoT officials told the publication that it disagreed that the new telecoms law covers OTT communications.
While the definition of “telecommunications” is broader than the original law, it is still limited to licensed telecoms operators running the networks that direct and deliver voice and data traffic, the official said.
“Interpretation of the definition is not as simple and that is why different stakeholders are understanding in their own way. Things will be clarified after some time when all the rules under the Act are notified,” the official said.
That’s not to say that OTT services will escape regulation – the question is which law, if any, should apply. OTT players argue that they are already regulated by the Information Technology Act.
Another issue with OTT apps is security issues related to fraud, misinformation or other criminal activity – an issue that has come to the fore with Saturday’s news of the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in Paris. According to media reports, Durov is accused of failed to prevent Telegram from being used for fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, promotion of terrorism and cyberbullying, although he had not yet been officially charged with anything as we went to post.
On the question of security for OTT apps, another DoT official told ETTelecom that the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) will determine whether such apps could be regulated under the Digital India Act “or some other legislation”.
