SP Kochhar, director general of the Mobile Operators Association of India, on Thursday made the case for OTT operators and telecom companies to share profits using 5G networks.
“While telcos carry voice and data traffic, most usage of these networks is done by OTT operators, who load large amounts of data into these networks and deliver this data to end users.
“They take the information from the content provider, put it on their platform and deliver it to the end user without paying anything to the network provider who created the network for them,” Kochhar said.
OTT players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, SonyLIV and others have a huge user base in India.
He said OTT platforms have benefited from the rollout of advanced technologies such as 5G.
“It’s like building a house, living on one floor and renting out the other floors, which the tenant uses for commercial purposes but he doesn’t pay rent.
“That’s very stupid. If I build something and then rent it out, I expect some value to come out of it. I’m not saying that all the profits you make will go to me, but some of the profits will go to me. All. “Should,” he pointed out.
He added that telecom companies are facing financial difficulties due to huge capital expenditures incurred to roll out 5G networks.
“We demand a fair share to build, maintain and operate these networks,” Kochha added.
The report shows that with the popularity of the Internet, digital connections and smartphones, the Indian video OTT market is expected to reach US$12.5 billion (nearly Rs. 1,038.9 billion) by 2030.
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