NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has shot down a demand from the telecom operators to stop or regualate free phone and SMS services provided by Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and half a dozen other App or make them charge fee and share the revenue with them or the government.
The mobile phone service operators had approached TRAI, complaining that they are losing heavily as they have invested millions in their networks while those offering free messaging and voice calls over the Internet have cut into their business since an increasing number of users prefer free services instead of using the operator’s normal voice calls and SMS services.
The operators had petitioned TRAI that these free service providers must pay all the fees that they pay to the government as that alone will force the app makers to charge for what is currently free and bring them at par with the telecom companies.
TRAI even refused to initiate a consultation paper on regulating companies offering free messaging and calling services. The telecom industry has estimated a minimum annual loss of Rs 5,000 crore due to their subscribers preferring the free services in a recent presentation to TRAI, complaining that the free service providers were putting a lot of load on their networks and they get blame for traffic congestion. The industry leaders claim that the telecom operators have lost close to 42 per cent of SMS revenue and 19 per cent of voice revenue to the free service providers in the past four quarters.
The telecom regulator had recently held a seminar bringing several free service providers face-to-face with the telecom operators, setting off a speculation that this was a precursor to regulate the app space in India. It, therefore, decided to go on record that it would not put any curbs on the free services.
This war between the telecom operators and the free service providers is not limited to India.
It raged in the United States where the telecom operators charge for only the long-distance calls while keeping local calls free. They found their revenue plummeting due to plethora of the free services and went to courts, but the Supreme Court refused to help them, pointing out that it won’t come in the way of the developments in science that allow free phone calls and SMS.
