The fight between telecom companies and OTT platforms doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon. Just yesterday we reported how they are fighting over selective banning of apps. Now, there is another reason.
The fighters include telecom giants like Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea, and streaming companies like Amazon and Netflix. The telecom companies want the streaming services to help pay for building India’s 5G network. They’ve asked the regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), for this.
Reliance Jio, led by Mukesh Ambani, says that streaming, gaming, and social media companies use a lot of data, which strains the telecom networks. These companies don’t currently contribute to the network’s cost. Jio thinks they should pay something since they benefit a lot from the network.
Jio suggests that the cost-sharing could be worked out between streaming companies and telecoms, based on things like how much data they use, their income, the number of users, and other factors.
Airtel and Vi support Jio’s idea and want a clear policy where big streaming companies pay a fair share for using the telecom networks. They also want these streaming communication services to be regulated like telecom services.
Airtel explains that 5G networks need a lot more infrastructure, which costs money. As more data-hungry apps and services come in the future, they believe it’s important to figure out how everyone can contribute to building this digital infrastructure.
On the other side, streaming and big tech companies like Netflix, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and others disagree with the telecoms. They argue that telecom companies have exclusive rights to certain spectrum frequencies, which gives them advantages like less competition. Streaming companies don’t have these rights and can’t control how telecom networks are developed.
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