New Delhi: Amid a tussle between Google and Indian apps over unpaid service fee, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Tuesday said global behemoths seem fully prepared to oust home-grown Indian companies based on pure financial motive, with no regard for this vital ecosystem of players who bring innovation and entrepreneurship to the table.
It further argued that in contrast, the same Large Traffic Generators (LTGs) “vehemently oppose” the proposal for a fair-share contribution for the additional costs borne by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for carrying their disproportionately large traffic and provisioning the increasingly demanding infrastructure required to deliver the same.
Google had last week delisted nearly 10 Indian apps from its Play Store citing non-compliance with the Play Store billing policy. However, many were reinstated later, as the Centre also intervened.
Delisted apps to be restored.
Google and app developers will work in close co-operation with each other. pic.twitter.com/ANOC8BlEs9— Ashwini Vaishnaw (मोदी का परिवार) (@AshwiniVaishnaw) March 5, 2024
The COAI counts the three private telecom operators — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea — as its “core members”, and lists big tech firms such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook as “associate members”.
While not naming Google, COAI Director General S. P. Kochhar in a statement said, “…the LTGs’ advocates contend that this fair-share charge would deter small players/startups from being able to operate on the network. The TSPs, however, have endlessly reiterated that smaller players, startups and MSMEs which generate low traffic would not be required to pay the fair-share charge, but only the top 4-5 LTGs which generate the mammoth volumes of traffic would have to contribute the same to share in the rising network costs.”
He added that app stores are making huge revenues from app developers and buyers/users of apps, as well as by monetising the users’ data and through ads and other businesses.
“It is rather surprising that these LTGs, which are generally global corporates based in foreign countries, are ready to evict non-paying small businesses…(but) themselves prefer to enjoy a free ride over the TSPs’ networks, while profiting heavily from them,” Kochhar further said, adding that they continue to make misleading claims that the proposed fair-share would hurt startups, MSMEs and smaller players and constrain innovation.
On Saturday, Telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that delisting of Indian apps cannot be permitted and a communication has gone to Google about reinstating these apps on Play Store. The minister had also called a meeting between stakeholders.
After the meeting, the minister said “constructive discussions” had taken place.
“Google has agreed to list all the apps as on the status which was there on Friday morning (1 March), that status will be restored. Google has been supporting our technology development journey and we believe that in the coming months, both startup companies and Google will come to a long-term resolution,” he had said.
#WATCH | Union Minister of Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, says “Google and start-up company, both have met with us. We have had very constructive discussions and finally, Google has agreed to list all the Apps as on the status which was there on Friday morning (1st March),… pic.twitter.com/lyXJu9XeK4
— ANI (@ANI) March 5, 2024
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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