Almost three years after it first recommended against creating a specific regulatory framework for over-the-top (OTT) communication services like WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Meet, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is revisiting its stance and starting consultations on how these services can be regulated.
In a consultation paper released Friday, the TRAI has asked stakeholders to send suggestions about regulating services and whether a selective banning of OTT services can be done as opposed to shutting down the entire Internet. Regulating such services has been a long standing demand of telecom operators, who have for years, been advocating for ‘same service same rules’.
The development signals the intersectionality in regulations around Internet services, with multiple government agencies claiming a stake in the sector. The draft telecom Bill released by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) last year had also recommended bringing OTT services under its ambit by creating a licensing regime for them. The IT Ministry is already the nodal ministry for regulating such services.
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The TRAI has essentially argued that while telecom operators and OTT services like WhatsApp offer similar services, they are not bound by the same requirements – as a result, there is a need for regulatory parity.
It said that telecom operators need a service licence for offering voice and SMS services, and on the other hand “OTT communication service providers offer voice call, and messaging and video call services similar to the services provided by TSPs, without any such licence”.
TRAI said that shutdown of telecommunications or the Internet can have “significant ramifications for a country’s economy”. “It also disrupts critical services such as education and healthcare. Consequently, such a shutdown affects the life and livelihood of the citizens of the country,” the regulator said.
This has been cited as a reason to explore selectively banning OTT apps, as opposed to the whole Internet, a recommendation that was first made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT.
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“…websites that use dynamic IP addresses and are hosted on cloud servers can pose a challenge to conventional methods of blocking,” TRAI said. “Advanced techniques can be employed to identify and block access to such websites.”