No plans for OTTs sharing revenue with telecom companies, says govt

They point to an ICRIER report which has said that OTTs should contribute towards the network costs of telcos and not continue to ride for free

There is no plan to direct over the top (OTT) communications players who generate large amounts of traffic to give a ‘fair and proportionate’ share of their revenues to telecom network operators, the Communications Ministry has said.

A senior official allayed any such apprehension by saying: “We have no proposal of this kind or anything like this which we are working on. There is no fresh reference on this matter to the regulator (Trai),” he said.

The ministry’s view is significant as telecom network operators have been escalating this issue since July when Trai issued a