Cloud service companies like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft and IBM don't want to have to register in an industry organisation created by the Department of Telecommunications, the Economic Times reported. TRAI had recommended to the DoT on September 14 that to regulate cloud service providers, there should be an industry body that works in tandem with the DoT and TRAI. Telecom operators, too, have opposed this move. Why cloud companies oppose regulation We reached out to the cloud companies that would be affected by these regulations for comment, but none have responded; Microsoft and Google declined to comment, while Amazon, VMware and IBM hadn't responded at the time of publishing. However, their responses to the TRAI consultation that led to these recommendations — mostly through industry associations — offer some insight into why they oppose being required to join an industry organisation created by the DoT. Except Tata Teleservices, VMware and the Mumbai-based cloud-based payments company PayMate, cloud companies have generally opposed any additional regulation on their industry. Amazon Web Services: "[Cloud Service Providers] are already subject to various existing Indian laws and should not be governed by the TRAI or the DoT," Amazon Web Services had said in its filing. AWS argued that neither TRAI nor DoT had jurisdiction over CSPs, as "Cloud computing is provided using the infrastructure of the telecom licensees as an information technology service, [but] it is an IT related service, and consequently, governance of CSPs in any form falls squarely within the jurisdiction of [the…
