Regulators to be ranked by I&B based on their collaborative approach: V Raghunandan

Stressing on a collaborative approach for carriage services and the content providers, TRAI secretary V Raghunandan on Wednesday said, “Collaboration is the new mantra. Collaboration, coexistence and convergence- these will be the way forward in telecom and other networks, whether we accept it or not.”

At FICCI Frames 2023 held in Mumbai on Wednesday, the TRAI secretary shared his thoughts on the ongoing debate between telcos and OTTs over revenue sharing. “One of the key concerns of carriage providers was that they will not be able to monetise their network of 5G carriage service, as the content provider was not keeping pace with their requirement.”

Raghunandan pointed out, “As a carriage service provider, unless I collaborate with content providers, I will not be able to monetise my network. Similarly, now with the emerging 5G carriage services, if as a content provider I have content that goes through the 5G network, then definitely I need a carriage which can match my quality requirement of that.” 

Especially with metaverse and Web 3.0 coming up, without 5G providing the carriage services, AR or VR technologies will definitely be nowhere- You can only experience it where 5G is there, he noted. 

So if carriage services are not there, content providers cannot exist, and if content providers are not there, carriage services will not exist- that’s absolutely clear, he asserted. “And we need to have a proper quality of service and quality of experience. That is the challenge. So it has to be collaborative, and it is going to be collaborative- whether you accept it or not.” 

TRAI chief said that I&B had actually come up with a new regulatory benchmark itself where the regulators who do the collaborative regulation- they will be categorised as the highest in ranking. “We have actually done collaborative regulation- for example, we have formed the joint committee of regulators where we have a number of meetings with financial regulators, and we have a forum for regulators,” Raghunandan added. 

Addressing the theme of the session ‘A free ride or a virtuous cycle? Content providers v/s carriage services’, he went on to explain, “There are several payment models of the carriage services that we know of- there’s a subscription model, hybrid model etc. So nothing is going to be free in this world. Definitely, there has to be some component somewhere that will come into the picture.” 

On the need for innovation in regulation, Raghunandan said, “Definitely regulators need to innovate, we are constantly interacting with the various stakeholders.” 

Citing the example of the metaverse almost a year back when they had to take note of all the regulatory challenges that are going to come up- what way it needs to be approached to create an enabling environment, without compromising security, privacy and so on, he noted that regulators have to be innovative and collaborative.

He further continued, “When we have to have a quick regulatory response, it is a continual process, at every technological disruption to see that the benefits of the technology reaches all economic sectors. Depending on the context, we may need to introduce new regulations, for instance, if huge data or security aspects are coming in, then we need to respond not in a knee-jerk manner, but in a calibrated and calculated way”.

He also addressed the legacy issues for existing players in the DTH sector. “TRAI has been recommending how to actually step back on those legacy issues and see that their concerns are well-addressed, so that there is a level playing field.” The government will continue to see that the level playing field is achieved at a certain point of time, however removing these legacy issues overnight is not practical or possible, he asserted, because the government was sustaining on the licence fee. 

“We will see how best these issues can be addressed, maybe come out with a roadmap,” the TRAI Secretary said, adding that the moment these things are addressed, he’s confident that in the future this OTT Vs Telecom will become a non-issue. 

Carriage operators worldwide are coming forth for a share of the over-the-top (OTT) revenue pie. In India too, telecommunications operators are seeking compensation from OTT services for internet traffic, particularly since they have invested significant resources in 5G networks. OTT providers, on their part, contend that as they contribute to the revenue of telecom companies, these companies should share their profits with them.