Demands for fair share charge on OTT companies smack of rent-seeking: IAMAI

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

IAMAI) on Thursday once again countered the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) proposal on selective banning of OTT or internet services, saying such demands for imposing revenue sharing mechanisms between Internet companies and telecom services providers (TSPs) «smack of rent-seeking».

According to IAMAI members, by requiring «largest» OTT service providers to pay TSPs for data used by consumers, TSPs would effectively be charging twice for the same service — as they already charge consumers for data.

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In any case, «surging data traffic» is merely data consumed by consumers that they have already purchased from telecom companies. Therefore, the «strain» on infrastructure of TSPs occurs when they sell data to consumers beyond their infrastructural capacity — a fact that has been conveniently ignored", the IAMAI argued.

The IAMAI also flagged demands made by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

The COAI has called for regulatory intervention to ensure «largest traffic originators» pay a «fair share charge» to telecom companies to account for capital investments made by the latter to «accommodate surging data traffic».

Similarly, the ICRIER has called for the imposition of a 'Broadband Infrastructure Levy' to be applied at 3 per cent of India operations of «significant» OTT service