The Cellular Operators Association of India, which counts Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea as its members, has said the telecom regulator's newly proposed quality of service (QoS) norms that mandate monthly and site-to-cell level reporting are burdensome.The industry body added that despite meeting Trai's stringent QoS benchmarks, telcos continue to face persistent challenges like right of way (RoW) issues, spectrum interference and infrastructure constraints, hindering timely network rollouts."The Telecommunications Act 2023 introduced critical RoW amendments for uniform state laws, but timely implementation is crucial, especially for 5G expansion," the COAI said.The industry body's views are part of a telecoms round-up for 2024 that underlines key challenges and also provides a sectoral roadmap for ringing in the next phase of growth.116608346The COAI said the telecom sector is a major contributor to GDP and providing employment to over 4 million people, directly and indirectly. But despite promising advancements, the industry faces several critical challenges, which can disrupt sustainable growth of the ecosystem, and accordingly, these need to be addressed on a priority basis, it added.Among the big challenges, COAI reiterated that over-the-top (OTT) players should be regulated and large traffic generators (LTGs) too must be mandated to contribute towards network infrastructure costs via a fair share mechanism to the universal service obligation fund (USOF), especially since the latter also offer the same set of services.According to COAI, the LTGs have strained telecom networks, compelling telcos to invest an additional ₹10,000 crore in infrastructure in 2023. "While TSPs bear these costs, LTGs, without contributing, amass multiple incomes through subscriptions, ads and data-driven marketing, with revenues largely outside India's tax ambit," COAI director general SP Kochhar said in an official statement.Likewise, Kochhar stressed that regulatory disparity with OTT players existed with regard to national security, user privacy and market fairness. "To address this, the government should enforce traceability and user privacy rules on all calling and messaging apps, as those platforms provide similar services using the internet network."The telecom operators have also reiterated their call for 6GHz band allocation for mobility services and bringing OTT platforms under spam regulations, saying these unregulated platforms serve as the hotbed for pesky communications.According to the COAI, as of October 2024, over 460,592 5G BTS sites were installed, leading to a surge in the 5G user base that is projected to reach 350 million by 2026. Fixed wireless access (FWA) services, it added, had emerged as a key 5G use case in India, with connections reaching nearly 3 million within a year of launch. Jio and Airtel, which have launched 5G services nationally, had 148 million and 105 million pure 5G users respectively in the quarter ended September 2024. Vi is yet to launch 5G services.