TRAI to shortly release views on regulating communication apps, ET Telecom

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon come out with its recommendations if over-the-top (OTT) communication apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal etc need to be regulated or not.

The regulator in July last year came out with a consultation paper on the regulatory mechanism for OTT communication services and selective banning after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked the agency to reconsider its 2020 recommendations. Trai had back then proposed that OTT services need not be regulated. But it had said it would relook at the issue later.

Refuting reports that the current OTT paper has become infructuous in the wake of notification of the Telecommunications Act, the Trai chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti today said, “The consultation was initiated after the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee and this consultation will continue. We will give our recommendations, and which Act it becomes a part of and which ministry or which regulator deals with it, is a separate matter.”

Since the issuance of the consultation paper in July last year, all the stakeholders have given their comments to the regulator. However, since September 29, 2023, which was the last date to provide comments, the regulator has not conducted the open house discussion so far.

Lahoti said the open house discussion will be conducted soon after which the recommendations will be given.

On another reference from DoT concerning satellite spectrum, Lahoti said, “The reference which came to Trai was for auction of satellite communications and since then the Telecommunications Act has come and it has listed the satellite communications under schedule 1, so Trai has referred it back to the government…We will now further take the process as and when we receive a revised reference from DoT.”

Telcos have for long demanded that communication apps be regulated as they offer similar services without the security and financial obligations attached to a licensee. OTT players have argued they are already regulated under the IT Act and more rules will only stifle innovation.

However, the new Telecommunications Act has removed OTT services and apps from the definition of telecom services, indicating that they need not be regulated. But after certain sections raised concerns about the overarching definition of telecommunications in the Act, the government clarified that the mandate of the Act was only meant for carriers like telecom operators and internet service providers.

“Nobody should have any apprehensions. The definition has been drafted by legally trained professionals who have been given clear mandate that this is meant for carriers which fall under the DoT,” a top official had said.

As per the mandate of the government, DoT can only regulate carriers while content falls under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), internet apps fall under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), financial apps under the finance ministry, health data under the health ministry, and so on.

In the draft version of the Telecom Bill, the OTTs were covered under the telecommunications services but was later removed from the definition when the Act was notified.