Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is floating a plan to charge so-called over-the-top (OTT) players, according to India’s Business Today.

The regulator held a seminar this week to discuss a regulatory framework for OTT services. There is speculation that TRAI is working out a way to charge network connectivity fees to the likes of WhatsApp and Viber.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular are among the country’s mobile operators that have been reportedly pushing for such a measure.

According to telecom industry estimates cited by the report, India’s telcos are currently losing about INR50 billion ($815 million) to OTT services. The figure is expected to exceed INR164 billion in the next two years on the back of smartphone growth.

Rises in mobile data revenue, courtesy of OTT app usage, does not make a big dent in falling voice and text revenue, according to these estimates.

TRAI is to publish a discussion paper based on the seminar.