[governance] Move to regulate skype and whatsup in India.

[Sivasubramanian M]

Thank you All, for responding to this thread and for the valuable pointers
to the developments in other countries.

http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/WhatsNew/Documents/OTT-CP-27032015.pdf

The document from the TELECOM Regulatory Authority of India, starts with
the description "The public internet ... added ability to carry the entire
gamut of services ... *to a consumer of telecom services* "  Beginning with
this description of an Internet for the Telecom Consumer, the document is
Telecom-centric.  The document, in its "Issues for Consultation" on Page
113 - 116 talks about a regulatory framework for OTT services ( I
understand this as a proposal for a Telecom-like regulatory framework, for
the Internet, beginning with regulation of OTT services), and talks about a
"licensing regime". Then it wants comments on OTT revenue to Telecom
Service Providers; then about Security aspects such as OTT logs and
records; discrimination of services; then about encouraging India-specific
OTT services; again about licencing; then about regulation of subscription
charges.

Pushing for an Inquiry or supporting legislation, would actually lead to
unpleasant outcomes, especially if initiated from within the Telecom
regulatory framework.  The ideas expressed in the call for comments already
indicate that there is an inclination to consider not only regulation, but
also licensing. Wrong ideas. Licensing in India worked to preempt
competition. In a licensing framework it has always been expensive for
entrepreneurs to get started.

If the OTT service providers have become dominant, and if there are traces
of unfairness in any of their practices, especially in the context of a
Developing Country with its own administrative nuances, the issues would be
harmlessly addressed by Consumer / multi-stakeholder forums rather than by
regulation and licensing.

@ Roland.  If you look closer, you will find that there are traces of a
move towards a new form of censorship, and non-nuetral discrimination.

@ Jozef    For argument's sake, if a corporation such as Google "invests"
to cultivate relationships, other companies have been doing it since 1865.
Google or anyone, would only have to indulge more in such practices if
there is a regulatory framework !


Sivasubramanian M

Sivasubramanian M <https://www.facebook.com/sivasubramanian.muthusamy>

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 9:50 PM, Roland Perry <
roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:

> In message <CAHyAo0G5atuvGZjicaxd_sHeqkK0YqvyOSr8q2bOmdnXNZAMGg@
> mail.gmail.com>, at 14:01:59 on Sun, 29 Mar 2015, Sivasubramanian M <
> isolatedn at gmail.com> writes
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/trai-seeks-to-regulat
>> e-ott-players-like-skype-viber-whatsapp-and-google-talk/
>>
>> On similar proposals in other countries,  how did the Internet user
>> respond
>>
>
> For a moment there I thought you were highlighting a new form of
> censorship, but the article appears to be about Net Neutrality - in the
> sense that carriers should not discriminate between traffic from one "OTT"
> or another, or between OTTs and their own legacy services, based on ransom
> payments.
> --
> Roland Perry
>
>
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