Telecom bodies scorn at OTT’s free rides of networks
TDP leader Lokesh Nara in a meeting Cellular Operators Association of India
By Sanjay Singh
New Delhi, October 18: India’s telecom industry body, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Tuesday defended its proposal to levy fair-share charges on ‘Over the Top’ or OTT service providers like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Hotstar, amongst others arguing that that the move would affect net neutrality and would result in double charges for customers.
OTTs as well as telecom bodies like Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) have been on warpath over the latter’s proposal. COAI argues that Late Traffic Generators (LTGs) responsible for 70 per cent of the total internet traffic must make a contribution to telcos.
This is not for the first time that OTTs and COAI and telecom bodies are up in arms against one another over the net neutrality argument. According to Retd Lt Gen Dr S P Kochhar, director general of COAI, Late Traffic Generators (LTGs) are using Telecom Service Providers networks to deliver their services, but making no contribution to the development, upkeep and sustenance of robust and quality telecom networks across the country, that’s required for catering to the huge traffic being loaded on the networks.
COAI’s sharing proposal has been met with a lot of criticism. The Broadband Forum believes that over-regulation of OTTs would be counter-productive. “It would also adversely impact innovation, lead to discrimination, adversely impact smaller entities and startups, and lead to a violation of Net Neutrality guidelines,” said T V Ramachandran, the president of Broadband Forum.
Net neutrality is a principle an internet service provider has to give equal access to all sites, apps, content without preferential treatment of any of them. Indian telcos are bound by their license conditions to ensure net neutrality, and will continue to do so, said Kocchar.
“COAI affirms that the proposed fair share charge does not affect access to an open and free Internet. The content and services for consumers would remain fully accessible with no traffic management/differentiation. The price for the traffic paid by end users will not change depending on whether the traffic generator is subject to fair share payments or not, he added. Fair Share approach would incentivize a more efficient handling of data without impairing customer experience, the industry body insisted.
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