A number of business our bodies, together with the Web & Cellular Affiliation of India (IAMAI), Asia Web Coalition (AIC), Nasscom, Broadband India Discussion board (BIF), and US India Strategic Partnership Discussion board (USISPF), have cautioned in opposition to this by means of their feedback and counter-comments submitted in response to TRAI’s session paper on the ‘Framework for Service Authorisations to be Granted Underneath the Telecommunications Act, 2023’. There will likely be an open home dialogue on August 21.
“IAMAI, in its counter-comments, has stated that OTT providers usually are not inside the scope of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, highlighting that when the Telecom Act was launched in Parliament, Ashwini Vaishnaw (the then Telecom Minister) clarified that ‘OTT has been regulated by the IT Act of 2000 and continues to be regulated by the IT Act. There isn’t any protection of OTT within the new telecom invoice handed by Parliament,’” stated IAMAI in its assertion.
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Additional, it stated that OTT providers are comprehensively regulated in India beneath the Data Know-how Act, 2000 (IT Act), the Data Know-how (Middleman Pointers and Digital Media Ethics Code) Guidelines, 2021 (IT Guidelines), and the Digital Private Knowledge Safety Act, 2023 (DPDP Act).
They’re additionally required to adjust to the Client Safety Act and Guidelines for shopper welfare, in addition to the Competitors Act for financial regulation. IAMAI’s submission additionally reiterated that OTT providers are inherently completely different from telecom service suppliers (TSPs). From a technical perspective, TSPs function on the community layer, whereas OTT suppliers function on the appliance layer, it stated.
Due to this fact, there’s a clear distinction within the operational and technical nature of OTT service suppliers and TSPs. Clarifying that OTT providers don’t “free experience”, as they’re considerably driving the revenues generated by TSPs, it’s the demand for on-line content material and purposes offered by OTT suppliers that’s driving a rise within the demand for Web entry provided to shoppers by TSPs.
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TRAI, in its Session Paper ‘Regulatory Mechanism for OTT Communication Providers, and Selective Banning of OTT Providers’, rightly recognises the contribution of OTT service suppliers to the expansion in income of TSPs, it added.
Nasscom’s counter-comments have additionally said that OTTs usually are not coated beneath the ambit of the Telecommunications Act, 2023. There isn’t any must convey OTTs beneath Service Authorisation and impose any further regulatory burden on them. It additionally stated that the general public clarification offered by Vaishnaw, clarified that OTT providers are excluded from the scope of the Telecommunication Act, 2023.
“OTT Communication providers are coated beneath the brand new Telecom Act as an entry service. All such statements by these few stakeholders (TSPs) are incorrect, motivated by their slender business pursuits, and devoid of any foundation. The vast majority of stakeholders haven’t even talked about this as a difficulty for dialogue,” BIF stated.
The stakeholders supporting this measure are seemingly pushed by their particular person business pursuits to scale back their regulatory burden and compliance prices on the expense of broader business development and shopper advantages, it stated.
“The bigger motive appears to be a discount in competitors. None of those stakeholders have considered the adversarial affect that such a pan-India unified service authorisation is prone to have on smaller and area of interest service suppliers who supply particular providers in particular service areas,” BIF added.
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