Telecom operators – Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea — along with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Friday urged communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to relax the recently notified quality of services norms and pressed for their demand for  similar rules and regulations for OTT communication apps.

From the telecom operators side – Reliance Jio was represented by its managing director Pankaj Pawar, whereas Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra, BSNL CMD Robert Ravi, and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general SP Kochhar also attended the meeting.

This was Scindia’s second meeting with the operators in the last one month. Notably, DoT has formed six committees to improve the sector. These panels involve OEMs (original equipment makers), satellite communication companies, telecom service providers (TSPs), Internet service providers (ISPs), electronics, and academicians and R&D experts in the telecom sector.

Officials said that telcos raised their concerns around the uneven level playing field between telcos and OTT players like WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.

The COAI in its recent submission to Trai said, “as per our understanding, OTT communication services are covered under the new Telecom Act as an access service”. This is against the stance of the former communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who clarified that the telecom Act will not regulate the OTT apps.

According to telcos, OTTs are in competition with telcos looking at the nature of services and should be brought under the authorisation regime. The telecom companies have been demanding a revenue-sharing model with large traffic generators on telecom networks.

Among other key issues, COAI specifically raised the issue of stringent quality of services norms notified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recently and urged for some sort of relaxation, officials said.

In their earlier representation, COAI had said the new quality of services (QoS) rules notified by Trai will increase compliance and cost burden for telecom operators without any benefits to consumers.

Officials said the government has heard their demands and will be taking right actions to promote jobs in the sector and have an ecosystem with ease of doing business.