OTT won't be regulated as telecom service: DoT
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly said that OTT (over-the-top) players won’t come under the purview of the definition of telecommunication services in the Telecom Bill. According to news reports, DoT said that the current definition of telecom services under the Telegraph Act is good enough and that there’s no need to add OTT in the new bill. The government won’t be enabling a revenue-sharing model between the OTTs and the telecom-sharing providers. The report also quoted a government official who said that there’s no revenue-sharing mechanism in the works. Telecos have been demanding a share of the revenue earned by OTT players who have been using the former’s network for carriage of their apps. In their defence, the telecom companies contend that the streaming apps have been offering heavy services and generating disproportionately high traffic, pushing them to upgrade their network capacity. The new Telecom Bill is set to replace the Telegraph Act, which defines “telegraph” as “any appliance, instrument, material or apparatus used or capable of use for transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, visual or other electro-magnetic emissions, Radio waves or Hertzian waves, galvanic, electric or magnetic means.” The move to remove OTT from the Telecom Bill is reportedly expected to be tabled in the winter session of the Parliament.
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