The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has initiated the process to prepare framework for over-the-top (OTT) services like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and many others.
"Worldwide, there is an ongoing debate among governments, industry and consumers regarding regulations of OTT services and net-neutrality. In this background, Trai today released a consultation paper on regulatory framework for OTT services," the regulator said in a statement on Friday.
"Today, users can directly access these applications online from any place, at any time, using a variety of internet connected consumer devices. It is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to know if there is an economic difference in connecting various networks via a landline phone, cell phone, or a computer," the consultation paper said.
The characteristics of OTT services are such that telecom service providers (TSP) realise revenues solely from the increased data usage of the Internet-connected customers for various applications and do not realise any other revenues, be it for carriage or bandwidth, it said.
"They are also not involved in planning, selling, or enabling OTT apps. On the other hand, OTT providers make use of the TSPs' infrastructure to reach their customers and offer products/services that not only make money for them but also compete with the traditional services offered by TSPs," it added.
The regulator said written comments on the consultation paper are invited from the stakeholders by April 24 and counter comments by May 8.
Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.