Leading cellular network operator Airtel has reportedly urged giant sites such as Google and Facebook to share out their revenues to the telecom operators and that the sites should account for some 40 percent of the overall data traffic.
The company asked the telecom regulator to impose interconnection charges for data services just like it is applied for voice calls.
The reasoning behind Airtel’s demand is that much of the company’s data is used to access Google and Facebook’s websites. This, according to Airtel, is also due to the falling revenue from voice.
The Business Line quoted Jagbir Singh, Director, Network Services Group, Bharti Airtel as saying, “Today, Google, Yahoo! and others are enjoying at the cost of network operator. We are the ones investing in setting up data pipes and they make the money. There is interconnection for voice then why not for data.”
World data suggests that phone browsers are quickly catching up with the traditional desktop avenue of accessing the social sites including Facebook.
In addition, telcos have heavily invested in 3G networks and in fibre connectivity around the world.
In Africa, phone browsing is the overall avenues people use to access their emails and social sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
“Network is capital intensive, we have to pay for spectrum and voice revenue is coming down. At the same time, companies like Google, which have not invested more than a few billion dollars, are enjoying valuations that are ten times that of a traditional telecom player. It’s an unfair game,” Jagbir said.
This however seems to be a bit far-fetched as it is the consumers who pay to access these services. If there is any revenue share, it should be with the consumers of such popular social sites.
Arguments of telcos would be that the data consumption on these sites forces them to invest in more infrastructure, which the popular sites should contribute to.
For Airtel, 40 percent of the Web traffic on its network is pointed towards Facebook, Google and Twitter.
