TRAI decides against charging WhatsApp, Viber customers

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided against a proposal of carriers to charge customers for using popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and others.

The carriers had proposed to make companies that offer these popular services share part of their revenue with them or the government.

The Trai has also shelved plans to initiate a consultation process as it feels that operators are able to offset their losses through growth in data revenue.

The telecom industry had estimated a minimum annual loss of Rs 5,000 crore due to subscribers opting for free messenger services and voice over Internet calls. "One-third of the incremental revenue of the telecom industry is coming from data services itself. As far as the voice services are concerned, there is an upswing in the realisation rates," one of the Trai officials told ET, explaining the rationale for not intervening for now.