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OTTs are transforming how we communicate, interact, consume entertainment, work, play, and create many more opportunities for consumer choice. OTT applications and services are key drivers of this new digital economy and is what is leading to a future where more and more products use the internet to share data collected through sensors, inform decisions based on data analytics, and ensure efficiencies in processes, products, and services. As more and more people around the world use internet-enabled apps and blockchains to connect, interact, learn, and do business, this free flow of data across borders is a key ingredient to OTT’s success, to innovation and to the economic growth that results.
The opportunities for OTT services are endless as long as the Internet remains as an open platform that respects the end-to-end principle. As long as OTTs remain open and are in an environment is fully compatible with consumer protection laws and regulations, they will continue to grow and create many more innovative approaches and can meet the demands of their citizens and in respect with human rights.
As OTTs expand in popularity and are increasingly included as part of mobile data plans, governments are faced with the decision of whether or how to intervene. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution that can be applied to different and diverse countries. What we can do is suggest some good principles to follow. Telecom regulators should recognize how different rules and regulations and using a lighter touch on regulation could enhance the innovation economy, create new businesses and enhance economic growth.
The OTT providers, network companies and all stakeholders should work closely to mitigate the risks of holding customer personal information, more importantly how this information is kept in a central environment prone to security flaws. Blockchain can solve both concerns.
Secondly, Blockchain technology can be leveraged to provide self-sovereign identity management systems on top of the OTT applications. Systems that can provide the end users with full ownership of their own information. It can also improve the ability to trace how the information is exchanged amongst OTT service providers or other third parties, whether traditional or autonomous, in a trusted distributed network.
Countries should create enabling environments in which all stakeholder groups, Academia, civil society, technical communities, private sector and the public sector are able to grow and thrive by the adopting Open Internet principles.
Local and international partnerships are necessary to scale up the over-the-top services, expand its reach and reduce costs for all players. This will definitely gives the opportunity to improve the service offerings and democratize the access to the over-the-top these services to a large population. The Blockchain technology can be of a great help to achieve distributed partnership models.
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