It’s amazing to observe how the business environment takes turn within weeks or days or hours. The latest as per the report published in The Hindu that Bharti Airtel CEO advocated for regulating Instant messaging applications. I have been predicting for the last many months through my blogs that non regulatory Applications segment are taking undue advantage and it would be sooner than later that regulators are going to look into it to generate additional revenue and also brought many application provider under the regulatory environment of land of law.
Interestingly recent high voltage acquisition and venture fund investment into Application segment raise many eyebrows. The latest comment from Bharti Airtel CEO clearly indicates Service Providers worry around revenue leakage due to non regulatory domain, impact on government revenue share and more importantly security gaps created indirectly.
I will not be surprised in case of revival of Application consultation paper by TRAI which was under wrap for the last many months. At the same time, lawful agencies may also slap notices to unnamed messaging applications provider for the violation of Indian land of law in terms of offering services as well as privacy/security. I strongly believe that Bharti Airtel CEO Comment in The Hindu news paper will be used as threshold by Service Providers to launch an effort to bring Instant messaging companies on terms where they can earn more from them including revenue share.
