Net Neutrality and Impact of Regulation on Over the Top (OTT) Services and Study of responses of Public and Telecom Service Provider

The telecommunication industry is evolving at a very fast pace and now a days over the top (OTT) services has captured the market. Many telecom service provider (TSPs) are facing the challenges with the growing customer demands. Customer having smart devices which consumes a lot of bandwidth. In order to meet the demand of customers TSPs are spending heavily to increase the network capabilities. Network quality is a differentiator factor for most of the TSPs. The emergence of OTT has resulted in price and product erosion impacting the revenue system of TSPs. Net neutrality is creating a neutral internet. TSPs are working under stringent rules and regulation and as OTT are competing with the basic Tele services provided by TSPS so there is a need to regulate OTT services, to provide level playing field. There must be a seamless integration between TSPs and OTT players so as to take the internet revolution to a newer height. To provide framework for Over the Top (OTT) service Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken initiative as Regulatory framework act more as a catalyst than a barrier. With the increase in the data penetration rate and OTT adoption this is a right time to put in place an appropriate regulatory framework. We have conducted a qualitative analysis of the different operators and the quantitative analysis of the public responses to study many aspect of regulating OTT services and revenue sharing.