Let’s go back to the intertwined issues and establish that these first will need to be untangled so that possible investments can be judged on the right business model and risk profiles, needed to asses such investments
It should also be in the interest of the OTT players to optimise the network for the digital economy, digital media, e-health, etc, and this creates a large number of new value-added infrastructure opportunities for the telcos.
Once we have an agreement on those basic infrastructure principles, and once we have established a basic, general purpose infrastructure there should be room for commercial discussions and negotiations aimed at seeking participation in the costs of building, improving and extending that infrastructure. It is interesting to see that also the European Union is moving in this direction. Also governments could be interested in taking part in these discussions especially for infrastructure investments that don’t have sufficient base for commercial investments. It is also in the interest of the OTT players that the infrastructure can handle the ongoing increased capacity needed for the rich media services that they want to provide and the many innovations they will want to introduce once the quality of the infrastructure improves. Collaboration could either happen through direct investments or through what we call commitment to buy ‘value-added infrastructure services’ from the operators (anchor tenants) specifically tailored to the services they require within their OTT business model.
We believe that telcos in the developing countries with efficient networks could be at the forefront of starting the dialogue with their colleagues in the OTT world to move this process further, and in a much more positive way than can be done at this point in Europe or the USA.
Preferable the case for the telcos to charge more will need to be won on merit, not on regulatory favours. They will have to prove that further infrastructure will be hampered, or simply will not happen at all, if the OTT players do not participate; and before the OTT players will even consider that, they will need hard proof for that.
And/Or the telcos will need to develop appealing wholesale services based on the quality needs of user applications and the required network performance. If these services are seen by the OTT players as a real value to their business (the value-added infrastructure services) they will be happy to pay for them. Having a good understanding of the needs of the OTT players and being able to offer them additional quality services could well be the best way forward.