The elevated adoption of data network centric text, voice and data oriented applications gained quick adoption. It prompted many International and Domestic OTT players to position their offerings to consumer using network delivery media in order to mint maximum leverage from ongoing blind adoption. Many of the OTT players are not even registered with local government authorities and positioning their product. It is really difficult for Indian regulator to create vigilance team to keep close tab on ongoing happening. Most the mobility user in India focuses on price vs. security and in-turn also responsible for the potential vulnerability across ecosystem attached directly or indirectly with Telecom ecosystem.
I must admit that there are many OTT player’s who is really offering differentiated product positioning by adhering the regulation of land whereas many OTT players are bypassing regulatory implementation as it would cost them dearly on the systems. Interestingly, Indian regulatory body TRAI and DoT till now came out with network, platforms, product, services and consumer level regulation but still need to come out with Applications related regulations. Everyone perception regarding Applications, it is one of the major source of security threats in case of any design flows and generally consumer neglect those part of the applications. Many of the OTT players are taking consent from consumer regarding their permission to capture user information on its server to serve them better but unfortunately consumer gets trapped over there as higher percentage of consumer never read application attached Terms & Conditions.
The problem start from that point when OTT player extract consumer information for the better service but unfortunately in case of any problem with devices triggered by those applications, consumer connects with Mobile Operator customer care or device manufacturer inflicting heavy support cost without being compensated from OTT players. It’s a open query, How many of OTT application providers runs their Customer Care service in India, Also, if they push updates to consumer to upgrade Applications and unfortunately it crashes device or degrade performance then who is responsible for the payout. Currently the Device Manufacturer brand is getting hit and Mobile Operators are losing money. The Regulatory may come out with stringent guideline to stop the revenue leakage as well as higher threat to telecom and associated networks by forcing OTT players to invest in infrastructure, resources, support in India and it would make OTT player model completely unattractive.
