Telcos want TRAI to overlook the letter from start-ups regarding network fees
By MYBRANDBOOK
In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has urged the regulator to ignore a letter petition signed by 128 start-up founders like Nithin Kamath, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and Sameer Nigam. In September, various start-up founders had signed a letter petition, addressed to the TRAI which advocated against the telecom companies' demand for OTT (over-the-top) players to pay network usage fees to telcos to compensate for the costs incurred by telcos to develop and maintain large networks.
The letter had argued that such demand by telcos was tantamount to “rent-seeking” and that “overregulation of internet services being described as OTT services, which may have discriminatory consequences”. It also said that such a mechanism would tilt the balance away from young start-ups and be in favour of large tech players who can afford to pay such compensation to telcos.
Other than being inconsistent with the start-up India initiative, the latter claimed that such a compensation mechanism would be in breach of well-founded principles of net neutrality.
The COAI letter claims that far from hurting start-ups, such a network usage fee would work to their advantage. The letter recalled how telcos had earlier proposed to exempt start-ups and MSMEs from payment of such fees.
The telcos further reasoned that post the exemption, the levy of such a network fee would help enhance telecom infrastructure, which in turn would help start-ups and MSMEs deliver better quality services.
The telcos further wrote in the letter that an "equitable contribution to infrastructure costs" by large traffic generators would help in ensuring better network quality and expansive outreach of services, which would also aid the Govt’s efforts towards social upliftment.
On the issue of net neutrality, the telcos submitted that it had no nexus with the fair share compensation sought by telecom companies. The letter claims, "Telecom Service Providers are not asking for any price differentiation for similarly placed entities and this perception being propagated by certain entities is a grave misconception and myth.
Telecom companies assured in their letter, "All startups/MSMEs/low usage internet companies will enjoy the same quality of service as the LTGs, without any discrimination."
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