New Delhi: The telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) will float a consultation paper on regulating Over the Top (OTT) players by third week of January. The authority’s chairman Dr Rahul Khullar told that the process would seek to define ‘net neutrality’.
The development comes on the day the country’s largest telecom operator, Airtel withdrew its newly proposed tariff package under which it would have priced all voice calls made using the internet at least four times browsing. Thus breaching the concept of net neutrality.
“Currently there is no law or framework surrounding this concept in India and it is not important to define the concept in terms of what other countries follow or do. We have our own socio-economic systems within which we need to address this issue. All I can say is that time has come to address this space,” Khullar said without divulging any details of the cornerstones around which the debate would be centered in in following days.
Khullar had earlier told that any discussion on the issue will have to be dealt with carefully to ensure that a regulation if at all, doesn’t discourage creativity and innovation in the country.
At present pricing on the internet is based on validity and the volume of data. The regulator is examining if the current data packs based on these parameters limit the users access to mobile internet. The exercise would also set the scope of regulation of OTT scope in the country.
