Please find my comments below

My Profile: Internet Consumer, depends heavily on Internet for work and life

Question 1: Is it too early to establish a regulatory framework for OTT services, since internet penetration is still evolving, access speeds are generally low and there is limited coverage of high-speed broadband in the country? Or, should some beginning be made now with a regulatory framework that could be adapted to changes in the future? Please comment with justifications.

> Yes, it is too early. OTT and internet are to be treated together. It has a definition that goes far from the ambit of access services. For now, keep it away from regulation. OTT is a golden goose for India. Feed it with an eco-system and nurture it. It has the power to spring up big opportunities to create many Indian MNCs in the near future.

Question 2: Should the OTT players offering communication services (voice, messaging and video call services) through applications (resident either in the country or outside) be brought under the licensing regime? Please comment with justifications.

> No. The beauty of OTT is that it is a hub of creativity. Can one confine the definition of new-age communication channels like Whatsapp as a mere messaging service? Was SMS been able to grow in usability and convenience over the 2+ decades of existence when Whatsapp has changed our lives within 5 years? Services like Whatsapp would have hit the same fate, had it been regulated.

Question 3: Is the growth of OTT impacting the traditional revenue stream of TSPs? If so, is the increase in data revenues of the TSPs sufficient to compensate for this impact? Please comment with reasons.

> Yes. However, the impact and bearing that it has on TSP/ISP services depends on what their core portfolios are and what risks have they taken in. Hence, they should be left with to decide what strategy they would adopt - increase in data revenues or partner with OTT providers or so.

Question 4: Should the OTT players pay for use of the TSPs network over and above data charges paid by consumers? If yes, what pricing options can be adopted? Could such options include prices based on bandwidth consumption? Can prices be used as a means product/service differentiation? Please comment with justifications.

> Not now. For such OTT content providers whose content usability is bound by latency (qos), they will need some kind of presence in India either as local hosting or CDN. Take two cases,

Case 1. Imagine if no regulation in place for net neutrality and TSP/ISP is free to impose differential services. This lets service providers demand payment from content (OTT) providers through their hosting providers. This has started

Case 2. There exists a regulation. As there is a definite but limited bandwidth available to TSP/ISP, they will still won't be able to provide equal treatment to any and all content providers. It will only makes all of shared users’ usability worse. It would be even worse when bigger OTT players who can pay more

What difference a regulation makes for a consumer?

Question 5: Do you agree that imbalances exist in the regulatory environment in the operation of OTT players? If so, what should be the framework to address these issues? How can the prevailing laws and regulations be applied to OTT players (who operate in the virtual world) and compliance enforced? What could be the impact on the economy? Please comment with justifications.

>No. As a consumer, I do not think that is the case yet.

Question 6: How should the security concerns be addressed with regard to OTT players providing communication services? What security conditions such as maintaining data records, logs etc. need to be mandated for such OTT players? And, how can compliance with these conditions be ensured if the applications of such OTT players reside outside the country? Please comment with justifications.

> Yes, consumer privacy and security of information requires control and governance from a government agency. This is hygiene. Everyone knows that many of government departments do depend on Gmail for official communication. However, OTT providers should be free to state what their privacy rules are legibly and take concurrence through a EULA. They should also make their disclaimers statements written down and sent as e-mail. Start from there and extend to those of National Interests.

‘How’ in the question requires a survey of legal incidents across the world; I see many from good reads from ‘Hogan Lowells’.

Question 7: How should the OTT players offering app services ensure security, safety and privacy of the consumer? How should they ensure protection of consumer interest? Please comment with justifications.

> Same as above

Question 8: In what manner can the proposals for a regulatory framework for OTTs in India draw from those of ETNO, referred to in para 4.23 or the best practices summarised in para 4.29? And, what practices should be proscribed by regulatory fiat? Please comment with justifications.

> ETNO market is far too different from India, while potential to create OTT services is much better in India.

Question 9: What are your views on net-neutrality in the Indian context? How should the various principles discussed in para 5.47 be dealt with? Please comment with justifications.

> TSPs are more dominant than any vanilla ISP in India. And, TSPs carry multiple layers of carriage. However, most of their last mile is weak in terms of available capacity.

Net neutrality is a consequence and should not be treated at equal breadth from regulatory point of view. OTT and internet are to be treated together, while net neutrality should be treated under the greater ambit of public service and not as mere telecommunication service, unlike what US FCC has done. If that requires a legislation beyond telecommunication or information technology, it should be taken up now, rather than hurrying to force fit.

Question 10: What forms of discrimination or traffic management practices are reasonable and consistent with a pragmatic approach? What should or can be permitted? Please comment with justifications.

> Discrimination of pure internet traffic goes with the definition of broadband. Broadband providers should never discriminate in-bound traffic. Narrowband traffic will need discrimination, to make sure data traffic does not always get lowest priority than a hogging video/audio traffic. All wireless traffic in India is narrowband, that they are not true carrier of hard and heavy latency bound traffic like video, with all improvement in codec achieved so far, even with HEVC/VP9-10.

Question 11: Should the TSPs be mandated to publish various traffic management techniques used for different OTT applications? Is this a sufficient condition to ensure transparency and a fair regulatory regime?

> Only if it merit is found to implement net neutrality in India within TSPs. In such case of your ruling, you should NOT try to define standard measures to which all network management systems comply to, assuming that it will help compare apples to apples. Reason is simple: we do hardly have any broadband here.

Question 12: How should a conducive and balanced environment be created such that TSPs are able to invest in network infrastructure and CAPs are able to innovate and grow? Who should bear the network upgradation costs? Please comment with justifications

> Does anyone think TSP/ISP in India cultivate technological innovations today? Are they doing anything better than just adapting innovations happening in mature markets? What they do today is partner with equipment providers who make India-centric solutions and products to be marketed in India.

> Yes, network capacities seem to crunch today and need upgradation. But that should not be done by over-arching on OTT content providers, by which you will end up killing both golden geese.

Question 13: Should TSPs be allowed to implement non-price based discrimination of services? If so, under what circumstances are such practices acceptable? What restrictions, if any, need to be placed so that such measures are not abused? What measures should be adopted to ensure transparency to consumers? Please comment with justifications.

> same as Q #11

Question 14: Is there a justification for allowing differential pricing for data access and OTT communication services? If so, what changes need to be brought about in the present tariff and regulatory framework for telecommunication services in the country? Please comment with justifications.

> There is no justification for differential pricing to consumers. TSPs, should be allowed to partner (with non-exclusivity) with OTT providers. Even if there is differential pricing, OTT providers will end up with installing their gateways in TSP network, which is the practise today.

Question 15: Should OTT communication service players be treated as Bulk User of Telecom Services (BuTS)? How should the framework be structured to prevent any discrimination and protect stakeholder interest? Please comment with justification.

> Never. Because, that effectively means imposing regulation on them, which is too early for such measure in India. How does such a measure differ from a user being charged for using OTT voice services through TSP? Won't OTT provider be left to charge the user for the same and that kills the entire purpose?

Question 16: What framework should be adopted to encourage India-specific OTT apps? Please comment with justifications.

> Nothing to be done ON them from a regulation perspective. They are already in a blooming ground. Don't touch them at least for the next 3-5 years. Just bring about what is needed to realize the NBP to accelerate broadband acceptance.

Question 17: If the OTT communication service players are to be licensed, should they be categorised as ASP or CSP? If so, what should be the framework? Please comment with justifications.

> No, as above

Question 18: Is there a need to regulate subscription charges for OTT communication services? Please comment with justifications.

> No, as above

Question 19: What steps should be taken by the Government for regulation of non-communication OTT players? Please comment with justifications.

> Nothing except as in Q #6

Question 20: Are there any other issues that have a bearing on the subject discussed?

> OTT and Net Neutrality are two different things. Looking at OTT from a TSP/ISP access point of view is when you start thinking about regulation. Take some time out to see the ocean of opportunities OTT gives to every citizen and government alike. And, OTT as it powers the internet, is not a property of any individual, organization nor state. There are states which tried to impose Internet Tax and things like Netflix tax. In the long run, we’ll see similar things evolve, but my opinion is that we should not lose out on the opportunity that OTT gives us in forex or for ‘make in India’ to ‘host in India’. So, in essence, look at OTT as a long-term opportunity to strengthen the broader base of our information technology strength rather than trying to impose regulations which will only help only a narrow section who is only market focused.

Thank you

Aniraj