COAI for stringent measures on telecom players, apps to make services spam, fraud-free

New Delhi, Mar 12 (PTI) Industry body COAI on Tuesday pitched for comprehensive stringent measures on telecom players and apps to make communication services free from spam and fraud.

During an interactive session on global learnings, telecom initiatives and policy interventions post Mobile World Congress, COAI Director General SP Kochhar said world over telecom operators want internet-based calling and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Google Meet, and Signal, among others, (technically called over-the-top players) should be covered under the same rule as telecom.

"Please treat everybody at par. Whether it is OTT or telecom, whatever services we are providing to the citizens, it should be clean services which do not have any chance of spam or fraud. Let the axe fall, whether it is telecom or OTT, it should be equally binding on both," Kochhar said.

He said that telecom operators and the government have taken the bull by the horns to prevent scam and fraud calls.

"Lakhs of fraudulent numbers have been suspended or disconnected. That is in the telecom space. There is a parallel stream, which is running, which is the OTT stream, which gives an outlet to the fraudsters to run their businesses from there. There is no check or balance there. Therefore, they have a free run on spam and fraud calls and messages," Kochhar said.

COAI DG said that during the Mobile World Congress, he noticed that there is a demand worldwide to bring OTT players under the same rules as applicable to telecom operators.

"All across the world, they are all grappling with the same problem. They are all trying to find solutions. Some of them are a little ahead, and some of them are a little behind. But, the fact is that all of them are troubled by the same issue. And the focus was that we have to control OTT," Kocchar said.

Talking about 6G development, he said that India's march towards 6G is unstoppable despite the return on investment on 5G not being at par with expectation, however, the date for roll out in India will depend on the situation of the industry.

"As of now, the 6G experts are saying that the commercial rollout will take place somewhere in 2030. Given the space, given the speed at which the ROIs are happening, and the speed of other connected sectors, which will rely on 6G, the date may shift a little bit," Kochhar noted.

He said the government's expectations and aspirations to lead 6G are not necessary in terms of rollout but to have a lot of patents and standards coming out of the country.

Kochhar said that at the MWC, the focus of the telecom sector was on impact on AI networks and India was among the four countries mentioned by various experts and leaders that will benefit from it. PTI PRS PRS BAL BAL