Speaking at the 17th Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), held in Nassau, the Bahamas, the executive highlighted that new developments in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, algorithms and robots are changing the world, and that the unregulated nature of the Internet has been credited with much of this innovation.
“The internet and the digital age it supports are now dominated by a handful of giant corporations,” stated O’Brien. “Giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Skype have argued from the outset that they should be exempt from local in-country regulation, while the rest of us in the telecommunications industry must obey the law and build networks.”
The issue has been a hot topic across the region for over a year, with few countries making a move or planning to in order to even out competitive conditions for over-the-top (OTT) and telecom players.
“As part of any new deal, all network providers – whether they are telecoms operators or anyone else – need to be given a revenue share from advertising and OTT services so they can fund broadband networks in the most rural parts of Africa, the CALA region and South East Asia,” concluded O’Brien.