The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published the responses and comments received for its consultation paper on the regulatory framework for OTT services. The regulator has organized the responses from the stakeholders into three categories: i) comments from service providers ii) comments from service provider associations iii) comments from other stakeholders which includes individuals, organizations and consulting firms. We've collected some of the comments made by telcos and bodies and we shall be coming out with a three part series. Part one deals with comments on OTT services. Part two deals with their views on Net neutrality and part three will talk about comments made on zero rating. Comments by telecom service providers on over the top (OTT) services Bharti Airtel's responses: It is critical that the playing field be leveled and those providing the same services be governed by the same set of rules. In short, the OTT Communication Service Providers should be governed by the same set of rules as are applied on TSPs. The other important point to highlight is the fact that, at present, there exists a substantial arbitrage between voice and data realization per unit of network resource and, an unintended consequence of a significant growth in OTT voice communication services (and the resultant substitution of TSP voice), could well result in one of two possibilities - a significant rise in data prices or a slowdown in investment. While a minute of voice, which utilizes network resources equivalent to 0.25MB of data, realizes a revenue of 36 paisa, TSPs realizes only…
