Draft Telecom Bill: BIF Urges for Exclusion of OTT Services From Elements

The Broadband India Forum (BIF) has asserted that Over-The-Top (OTT) communications service needs to be excluded from the weather talked about within the definition of telecommunication companies, because the business physique gave its submissions on the draft telecom invoice.

BIF stated many robust and substantive causes sharply differentiate OTTs from telecommunications.

“By bringing the OTTs under the ambit of the telecom license, would mean that the government would only hold and have exclusive rights and privileges to decide, build, develop and operate the OTT apps. Such a situation would be grossly ambiguous and highly impractical and lead to a collapse of the entire app ecosystem, thereby impacting innovation and growth of the economy,” BIF stated in its current submission to the federal government on the draft invoice.

The draft invoice contains OTT communication companies, despite the fact that such gamers haven’t any telecommunication community, BIF argued.

It mooted that sectors apart from telecommunication, akin to broadcasting and OTT communications (or having every other nomenclature as an alternative of OTT Communications) can’t be within the ambit of the draft invoice.

“OTT Communications/OTTs are essentially apps and not telecommunication services, and like any app, they use the internet, and they do not own or work a telegraph/telecommunication network,” it contended.

BIF famous there have been some arguments claiming that OTT communications needs to be introduced underneath the purview of the draft invoice, and went on so as to add that “such contentions are not correct, both under law and policy”.

“Further such contentions may be driven by commercial objectives,” the discussion board added.

According to the discussion board, the business argument that OTT is a free-riding service is “neither correct nor is relevant” within the present context.

OTT service suppliers and customers pay TSPs (Telecom Service Providers) for community utilization prices.

Moreover, the enterprise fashions of OTTs and TSPs are very totally different and OTT by no means bypasses and easily can not bypass the broadband/telecom infrastructure to offer the OTT companies to its customers, it stated.

“It is respectfully submitted that OTT communications service should be excluded from elements in the definition of telecommunication services in the Draft Bill,” BIF added.

On spectrum administration, the business think-tank stated that the satellite tv for pc spectrum ought to proceed to be administratively allotted.