Ans: Yes, they can be put under licensing regime but only when the high speed broadband services are having a good coverage across the country. It should also kept in mind that they should not be charged too much or they might not provide their services in India due to such licensing. They are making money by advt. so they can share their profits with Telecos.

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.

Ans: No, growth of OTT is not impacting traditional revenue stream. Its a win win sitation for both Telecos and OTTs as more data usage is only due to the use of such apps only. The data services are still in pathetic shape in India, so instead of increase in data prices, Telecos must concentrate in increasing quality.

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 of product/service differentiation? Please comment with justifications.

Ans: OTT players must share the revenue with TSPs but the revenue sharing mechanism must not burdened on consumers. Telecos are already making lot of money and same is the case with OTTs. Most of the data is created by the consumers themselves which go viral and they are not asking for any money from these companies.

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.

Ans: Yes imbalances exists in regulatory environment. OTT players though operate in virtual world show advt. for a given geography and earn their revenue in the same manner. Compliance and regulation can be enforced on them. India is an economy where everyone wants to be part of making money and running business. If they really want to run business here in India then regulations must not be a problem for them.

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

Ans: In Finland, as per the knowledge, all the customer record or data resides within the country. Similarly all the OTT players providing services in India must open the data centers only in India so that the customer data must remain inside our country. The data must follow privacy laws and if required should be shared with security agencies at earliest.

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.

Ans: OTT players offering services in India can ensure security, safety and privacy of consumer by putting data centers inside the country and they can enforce various encryption methods or security measures, which can happen only if they are inside the preview of tight regulatory norms. A lot of free apps in name of free services see the customer data and can sell these data to third party which is wrong. e.g. a free android game asks for data related to call records, sms and all other things, why it should require the same for running a game only. People must also made aware of these things and regulatory norms can stop these OTT players or app developers for using customer data which is not required.

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.

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. 

Question 10: What forms of discrimination or traffic management practices are reasonable and consistent with a pragmatic approach? 

Ans: There must not be any discrimination or traffic management reasonable and all the services must be equally provided.

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?

Ans : Yes TSPs should publish such data to ensure transparency.

Question 12: How should the 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.

Ans: TSPs must prepare revenue sharing model with OTTs and a minor cost can be transferred to end users too. As the lot of users are using the services and there would be a good competition among all the players.

Also, TSPs could be encouraged to launch their own OTT services similar to existing OTT players, in this way TSPs can compete with OTTs over the net too.

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 12 should be adopted to ensure transparency to consumers? Please comment with justifications.

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

Ans: This could be justified but if the pricing is high then the OTT player might opt out of Indian market and consumers will be denied better services. SO pricing must be minimal and similar OTT services can be launched by TSPs to increase the competition.

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.

Ans: No they should not be considered as such. If something is really well served and consumer is likening that thing then its not their fault, they are just better than other players.

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

Ans: To encourage India specific OTT apps TSPs should be encouraged to do the same rather than crying foul about other OTT apps which are eating into their revenues.

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.  

Ans: OTT comm. service players should be licensed under CSP.

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

Ans: No regulation is required as of now as they are already having revenues and they can afford to put minimal charges to be competitive with rival OTT players or TSPs.

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

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

Ans: If NN is not maintained then small business which want to grow over web will not sustain and didn't have a chance against bigger market players which can give money to TSPs like flipkart had done with Airtel.