The Nigerian Communications
Commission is considering a framework for the regulation of over-the-top
services in the Nigerian telecoms market, according to a report by Premium
Times.
Over-the-top services, otherwise
known as OTT, are services carried over the networks, delivering value to
customers, but without any carrier service provider being involved in planning,
selling, provisioning, or servicing them.
OTT services are offered through
Internet communication.
In Nigeria, the most common OTT
services are WhatsApp messenger, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, and Skype
which are classified under social media applications.
In other words, telecom operators
such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo, and Airtel lack direct control or influence over
WhatsApp messenger, BBM, Facebook or Skype.
Internet telephony and live
streaming are also part of OTT services.
The growth of OTT services is
encouraged by the access to 3G and 4G networks which offer mobile broadband and
high speed IP data.
A report, ‘An Overview of
Provision of Over The Top [OTT] Services’ published recently by the Policy,
Competition & Economic Analysis Department of the Nigerian Communications
Commission, says OTT services were becoming a threat to the traditional
telephone network operators.
This development, the report
said, is a global issue.
The threat, according to the NCC
report, comes from the fact that Internet telephony is not only cheap, and free
in some cases, but it also offers many features previously unavailable with
telephones, therefore making it more attractive to consumers.
And unlike the traditional
telephone network operator, the operators of Internet telephony don’t pay tolls
for their services.
The report also stated that since
telecom operators such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo and Airtel do not have control
over WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook and the rest of the social media applications,
they (the telecom operators) do not generate revenues from services offered
through these applications.
The report said, “Many
traditional telecom service providers are of the opinion that traditional
telephony and SMS revenues are under threat from newer, IP based alternatives
like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber etc.
“Similarly, third party web
content and social networking companies such as Google and Facebook are
increasingly generating huge revenues and driving high levels of data traffic
which ride on the broadband networks of traditional telecom operators’.
“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,” the report said.
The NCC also believed there is
need for some kind of regulation because OTT services portend security risks to
the country.
“Because VoIP relies on your
Internet connection, it may be vulnerable to many of the same problems that
face computers,” the report said.
“Attackers may be
able to perform activities such as intercepting communications, eavesdropping,
taking control of phones, making fraudulent calls from an account, conducting
effective phishing attacks by manipulating one’s caller ID, and causing service
to crash.”
