Telcos vs tech companies spar over who should pay for OTT apps on 5G networks

Big IT firms and telcos are at loggerheads over whether OTT players should pay for 5G networks. OTT apps account for majority of data traffic on telecom networks and telcos believe that they should be required to pay up for 5G network development. However, now tech companies have hit back saying that telecom companies should compensation app players.

The Broadband India Forum (BIF), which has Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel as its core members, has reached out to telecom secretary K Rajaraman, saying that such a move would be unfair because the OTTs were not involved in any part of the of spectrum auctions, or related processes.

“..OTTs had no role while planning the network infrastructure…so, to expect them to post facto pay for the infrastructure which is designed, owned, deployed and controlled/managed by telcos is seemingly unfair,” BIF president T.V. Ramachandran said in a letter, dated May 11, to Rajaraman.

Meanwhile, India's top telcos are planning to urge the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to create a mechanism that forces OTT streaming and communication service providers, who profit the most from using telecom networks, to contribute to investments in 5G infrastructure based on the fair share principle, as reported by Economic Times