TRAI to issue consultation paper over OTT players

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is expected to come up with a consultation paper on over-the-top (OTT) players like Skype, Viber and Line by end-February seeking stakeholder views on issues such as bringing them under a licensing regime, revenue sharing and net-neutrality.

Even as the sectoral regulator was working on the consultation paper some time, new issues relating to OTT players started coming up.

OTT players offer services that allow users to make calls or send voice and video messages through internet for free. Issues like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and net neutrality had come to the fore recently and they had also been included into the consultation paper. According to sources, Trai would ask questions if the present licensing framework of unified licence could cater to OTT services or a different licence has to be issued to OTTs.

In case of OTT players offering voice services, the  issues to be sorted out include the security conditions, including maintaining data records, logs etc that should be imposed on them and if they are residing out of India, how these conditions can be ensured by the government.

Regarding net neutrality, Trai is going to seek comments of stakeholders if the market competition is enough to control non-discriminatory internet access or there is a need of regulatory or government intervention in this regard, sources said.

The regulator will also seek views on the need for revenue sharing arrangement between OTT players and telecom operators in order to maintain a level-playing field and also what measures should be taken to encourage India specific OTT applications.