Telcos demand fair-share from OTTs, pitch for stringent measures to curb spam

The telecom industry has reiterated that large over-the-top (OTT) companies should contribute to network building costs, and a lack of regulatory regime is contributing to increased spam and fraudulent communication through popular mobile applications, such as Meta Platforms-owned WhatsApp.

The Delhi-based Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Tuesday pitched for stringent measures to curb the menace of spam and fraud communications on telecom carriers’ networks and on OTT platforms.

“We are saying that the traffic contributed to by OTT on our network makes it incumbent for them also to share (network building costs),” SP Kochhar, director-general of COAI, told the media during a roundtable. “OTT is presently conducting business on telecom carriers’ networks without contributing anything.”

COAI represents telecom incumbents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi).

The fair-share issue has been raging between telecom carriers and OTTs for over 10 years now, with negligible progress toward any resolution.

The Delhi-based association previously estimated that the massive traffic created by LTGs strained telecom networks, compelling Indian telcos to invest an additional Rs 10,000 crore in infrastructure in 2023.

The association estimates a Rs 800 crore loss to the Indian exchequer in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and taxes like goods and services tax (GST) from the top four to five LTGs.

Separately, London-based GSMA recently found that telecom carriers made 85% of the total investment into mobile internet infrastructure globally – or about $109 billion – averaged over the past five year.

By contrast, the share of major internet service providers (ISPs) in the mobile internet connectivity infrastructure investment stands at just 7%, followed by tower companies (4%), large cloud application providers, cloud delivery network and cloud infrastructure providers (3%), and satellite providers (1%), the association’s study found.

Kochhar said 11 telcos have had to shut their business in recent years globally due to unprofitable business, and added that telecom carriers are hitting out at LTGs for their lack of contribution of network infrastructure costs.

“These numbers are going to grow…we are talking only about LTGs, but the emphasis is that they are not sharing any revenue.”

Kochhar further said that globally, telcos want Internet-based calling and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Signal, among others, to be covered under the same rules as telecom services.

In India, COAI has been demanding that OTT communication providers be brought under the regulatory regime by defining them under the Telecommunication Act, 2023, to address the issues of a non-level playing field and ensure the adoption of the ‘same service same rule’ principle. But, the suggestion has not yet been accepted by either the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) or the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Regarding the 6GHz spectrum band debate, Kochhar said these airwaves should be made available to telecom carriers for their fifth-generation (5G) and 6G network needs. He added that the Wi-Fi broadband companies should instead focus on Wi-Fi 7 technology which is spectrum agnostic, dismissing the latter’s demand for the 6GHz airwaves for Wi-Fi 6E deployments to drive broadband access in the country.

“Wi-Fi 7 is no longer an experimental technology. Its equipment is commercially available, and that is agnostic of any frequency band. Therefore, spectrum, which is essentially required for IMT for their subscribers, should be given to telcos rather than keeping it locked up in cupboards for Wi-Fi,” he said.