Key Points
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..
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..
