NEW DELHI: Citing the threat to net neutrality in the country, as many as 128 Indian start-ups including Paytm, Zerodha and PhonePe on Tuesday wrote to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) requesting not to bring internet companies into the licensing framework
The letter, which was signed by founders of India’s major start-ups, cautioned the telecom regulator that any move towards overregulation of over-the-top (OTT) services has discriminatory consequences. The letter pointed out that Internet services are already regulated under the IT Act, 2000.
“As a key representative of the Indian economy and internet innovation ecosystem, we are writing to urge the authority to continue their support for Net Neutrality principles and caution against any move towards overregulation of internet services being described as over-the-top (OTT) services, which may have discriminatory consequences.
Internet services are already regulated under the IT Act, 2000,” reads the letter. Talks of bringing OTT communication services under a licensing framework started doing the rounds after the draft Telecommunication Bill 2022 proposed to bring OTT communication services like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and Signal under light regulation.
Telecom service providers are pitching for bringing OTT players under licensing framework, and making them pay telcos network usage fee. Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI), an association representing all three private telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea reasoned that telcos have to invest in the networks and the OTT players only focus on improving their platform experience. Therefore, it argued OTT service providers should share a chunk of their revenues with the telecom players.
Internet companies in the letter have said that the demand to impose licensing and cost obligations on OTTs is directly at odds with the Government of India’s Startup India initiative. These initiatives aren’t complete without the support for Net Neutrality – a principle that assures telecom or internet service providers don’t discriminate for or against online apps and services, on the basis of availability, speed, or cost of access, leaving that choice to the end user alone.
The letter urged the TRAI to understand that the regulatory difference between TSPs and internet applications/ service providers does not require an intervention, especially because there are inherent structural and functional differences between the two.
“In case of bringing Internet in a regulatory framework there are chances TSPs will tilt the playing field in favour of one website/ application/ service or another, which will inevitably lead to discrimination, non-level playing field, entry barriers, and increased compliance burden,” reads the letter.