Tag: ott

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 should be excluded from the elements mentioned in the definition of telecommunication services, as the industry body gave its submissions on the draft telecom bill.

BIF said many strong and substantive reasons 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 said in its recent submission to the government on the draft bill.

The draft bill includes OTT communication services, even though such players have no telecommunication network, BIF argued.

It mooted that sectors other than telecommunication, such as broadcasting and OTT communications (or having any other nomenclature instead of OTT Communications) cannot be in the ambit of the draft bill.

“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 noted there were some arguments claiming that OTT communications should be brought under the purview of the draft bill, and went on to add that “such contentions are not correct, both under law and policy”.

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

According to the forum, the commercial argument that OTT is a free-riding service is “neither correct nor is relevant” in the current context.

OTT service providers and users pay TSPs (Telecom Service Providers) for network usage costs.

Moreover, the business models of OTTs and TSPs are very different and OTT never bypasses and simply cannot bypass the broadband/telecom infrastructure to provide the OTT services to its users, it said.

“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 management, the industry think-tank said that the satellite spectrum should continue to be administratively allocated.

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Government May Set Up Committees to Redress User Grievance Against Social Media Platforms: Officials

The government plans to set up appellate committees to redress grievances that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other issues, officials said.

While tech giant Meta (which owns Facebook and WhatsApp) and microblogging site Twitter have been pushing for a self-regulated grievance appellate framework, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wants adjudications to be done by three-member grievance appellate committees.

The panels will be constituted by tweaks in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Amendments may provide for social media platforms to acknowledge within 24 hours user complaints and resolve them within 15 days.

The complaints could range from child sexual abuse material to nudity to trademark and patent infringements, misinformation, impersonation of another person and content threatening the unity and integrity of the country.

Any person aggrieved by a decision of the grievance officer of social media platforms may prefer an appeal to the appellate committee within a period of 30 days, they said, adding that the amendment may provide for setting up of one or more such panels to address issues with different social media platforms.

The government had, in February 2021, notified the IT Rules (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), 2021 for social media apps, online news portals, news aggregators and OTT platforms.

However, even after providing for the redressal mechanism through the IT Rules, 2021, many user grievances remained unresolved, prompting the government to step in and propose an appellate jurisdiction framework.

Each grievance appellate committee may consist of a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the central government, of which one will be a member ex-officio and two independent members.

The grievance appellate panel will deal with such appeal expeditiously and make an endeavour to resolve the appeal within 30 days from the date of receipt of the appeal.

There had been pushbacks from industry and some stakeholders on the proposal for the grievance appellate committee after the government, in June, circulated the draft rules around this. At present, “there is no appellate mechanism provided by intermediaries nor is there any credible self-regulatory mechanism in place”, the IT ministry had then said.

 

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TRAI’ Concerns Over Draft Telecom Bill Provisions Said to Be Duly Addressed

TRAI’s apprehensions over potential dilution of powers under the draft telecom bill have been addressed, and the government may look at the option of taking up provisions related to strengthening of the regulatory body separately at a later stage, DoT sources said.

On over-the-top (OTT) communication apps, sources said, the focus is on user protection related regulation, not licensing. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT), through the provisions of the draft bill, will come down heavily on spammers and those indulging in cyber frauds, sources said.

Amid reports of TRAI‘s opposition to certain clauses of the draft telecom bill, that were seen diluting its powers, sources said, ​​​discussions have taken place between the two sides. All the outstanding issues have been resolved, they said.

There are no differences between Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the telecom department on this issue, sources said.

The thinking in telecom department now is that specific provisions related to strengthening of TRAI, on the lines of US’ Federal Communications Commission or UK’s communications regulator Ofcom, can be taken up after a period of time, say 3-4 years, through a separate exercise. For now, the contentious amendments may be removed from the draft telecom bill, currently in the works.

The government, in the draft telecom bill — circulated for stakeholder comments last month — has proposed a provision to waive fees and penalty of telecom and internet service providers. The telecom department has also mooted a provision for the refund of fees in case a telecom or internet provider surrenders his licence.

Meanwhile, telecom service providers are pushing for OTT apps to be brought under regulation. They argue that apps offering services similar to them — say WhatsApp, Signal and other similar apps used for calling and messaging — should be subject to the same licence conditions as telcos, thus ensuring a level-playing-field for all technologies.

 

 

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Department of Telecom Seeks TRAI’s Views on Regulating OTT Services Like WhatsApp: Report

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has reportedly approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), seeking its views on the preparation of a framework for the regulation of internet messaging and voice calling applications. The regulation could be directed at over-the-top (OTT) service providers like Meta-owned WhatsApp, Signal, Google Meet, and other apps and services, according to a report. Telecom operators in India for years asked TRAI to ensure the its rules for telcos are also applicable to these services that provide similar calling and messaging functionality.   

TRAI’s previous recommendations on internet telephony were not accepted by the DoT, after which the latter sought comprehensive reference on internet telephony and OTT service providers that allow users to make calls and send messages over the internet, according to a report by PTI citing an unnamed government official.  

TRAI had previously stated that there was no need to regulate OTT services, and the DoT last week asked TRAI for new recommendations, in light of the changing environment with new technologies. At the time, TRAI had recommended that internet service providers (ISPs) could provide internet telephony for making calls on phone networks, if they paid interconnection charges (which have since been scrapped for telecom operators) and installed lawful interception equipment, as per the report. 

The government is yet to officially announce plans to regulate OTT service providers. 

It is worth noting that TRAI has been facing pressure from telecom operators for years, over the regulation of OTT players in the country. The telcos have argued that these services should pay licensing fees and be subject to the same rules related to lawful interception, and quality of service. 

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