Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is on the path to monitoring the online activities of Over-The-Top (OTT) players, according to Guardian Newspaper.
OTT players are platforms that deliver audio, video, and other media over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in the control or distribution of the content, thereby implying that traditional telecommunications operators cannot directly earn revenue from their activities.
OTT players include Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and WeChat, among others, are prime target in the impending regulation.
Examining the evolution and development of OTT incursion into the telecommunications market, NCC, in a 23 page document titled: ‘An Overview of Provision of Over-The-Top (OTT) Services’ noted that the growing influence of these platforms posed apparent threats to the operation of traditional telephone networks such as MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat and Visafone, among others.
To further worsen this issue, the traditional operators still have to make significant investments in upgrading their networks to handle the increasing volume of data generated by the same providers of OTT services.
Most traditional telephone network service providers, therefore, argue that unless there is a revenue flow to them from such services, they do not have an incentive to continue to maintain or upgrade the networks.