THE DEPARTMENT OF Telecommunications (DOT) is working on a proposal to bring communication-based apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Facetime, etc, under some form of regulation, where they pay an interconnect usage charge (IUC) to telecom operators for using their networks.
A token, one-time licence/registration fee may also be levied on such operators. However, it's not clear at this stage whether such apps would need to pay a licence fee on a recurring basis as a per-centage of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR).
Official sources said that the proposal is in early stages and discussions are still ongoing. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is also working in this regard simultaneously and will shortly come out with a consultation paper.
It is quite likely that the final version of the telecom Bill, which will be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament, may announce the intent towards some form of regulation, and the detailed rules in this regard may come later.
"While Trai is looking methods and consultations at the to regulate OTTs, some kind of provisions will be mentioned in the telecom Bill make communication-based OTT apps liable to pay to an extent they use the telecom network," a government official said, adding that Trai will recommend the way forward on the regulations.
"A lot of regulatory changes are happening in the entire world where there is a kind of new thinking in the OTT space...whatever we do (around OTT regulation) will be in sync with the global trends," communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.
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