The Indian telecom operators have put forth the request to get a fair share of revenues from the OTT (over-the-top) communication players in the past. However, this request wasn't entertained by the government much. Now, to keep things fair, the telcos have requested that OTT players should bear a fair share of the cost of telecom infrastructure.
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"We need to roll out 5G and create a robust future network, the deficit between expenditure and earnings needs to be filled in. Last year’s deficit was 10000 crores. There are 2 feasible ways of doing so 70-80% of our network traffic today, is OTT traffic. So we must come to a unanimous decision with them, of sharing a fair share of the infrastructure cost, which can be regularly reviewed and revised," said Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, COAI.
COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) is the body that represents the private Indian telecom operators including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea. As per the telcos, because the nature of the services provided by the OTT communication players is the same as them, a level playing field should be created. The OTT communication players don't have to adhere to the telecom licensing norms (even though they provide similar services as the telcos).
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COAI has also requested the government that the telcos need more mid-band spectrum to serve customers with 5G services. The telcos got access to 800 MHz of mid-band spectrum in the previous auctions, but that's not enough. The operators need at least 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum in total.
"We need 2 Gigahertz of spectrum to provide 5G at full efficiency—but what we got in the last auction was only 800 Megahertz. So, there is a deficit of 1200 Megahertz that needs to be fulfilled to offer the true flavour of 5G at optimum costs. Having telecom is no longer a luxury; it is an essential ingredient flavouring our lives," said Kochhar.
