Whatsapp, Skype, Hike soon under regulatory regime; TRAI seeks views from the industry

After publishing a draft regulation to prevent telecommunication operators from blocking calls and tedious texts, the Telecommunications Authority of India (TRAI) issued the consultation paper very which asked whether actors such as Whatsapp, Facebook and Skype, among others, should be subject to the regulatory regime.

In a statement released on Monday, the telecommunications regulator said the document entitled "Regulatory Framework for Communication Services", aims to discuss and badyze the changes that may be needed in the regulatory framework to regulate these companies, as well as the following: "such changes should be affected".

According to TRAI, ongoing consultations would focus on regulatory issues and economic concerns related to OTT services. identical or similar to the services offered by telecommunications companies. "The purpose of this consultation paper is to badyze and discuss the implications of OTT growth; the relationship between OTT actors and TSPs; the similarity, if any, between the services provided by the TSPs and the OTT actors … ", says the communiqué.

In the consultation document, TRAI sought the opinion of the industry on the Whether OTT services should be considered identical or similar, similar to those offered by telecommunications entities, and does the regulatory or licensing imbalance have an impact on investments in telecommunications networks? telecommunication, and how can OTT actors participate in the injection of investments in telecommunication networks?

"Interoperability between OTT services and the telecommunication networks. interoperability of their services with TSP services promote competition and benefit users, "he added.

TRAI strengthened the rules applicable to all telecommunications players, including handset operators, in the country last July by putting in place a new regulatory framework to address the problem of unsolicited commercial communications. (UCC). SMS or unsolicited calls are serious problems and the new standards require subscribers to register for unsolicited calls and SMS from telemarketing companies, if they are registered with a defined preference. as being completely blocked. , provide messaging or telephony services over the Internet and are similar to those of telecommunications companies. However, these entities have not been affected by the regulations so far. However, telecom players would have expressed concerns about the new draft rules, saying the new standards are flawed and could channel unsolicited call and SMS traffic to OTT platforms.