Singtel chief calls for right to charge challengers Skype and WhatsApp SingTel's Chua Sock Koong. Photo: Bloomberg SingTel chief executive Chua Sock Koong has called on regulators to give carriers like Optus the right to charge rivals WhatsApp and Skype for use of their networks or risk a major decline in network investment. Ms Chua praised Australia's regulatory market at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona as one of the few countries in the world to allow a foreign player to have total ownership of a telco provider. The main problem we have as an industry is we have been unable to monetise this increased demand SingTel owns Optus, which is Australia's second largest provider of telecommunications services. It invested almost $1 billion during financial year 2013 in its fixed line and mobile networks. But the CEO warned such investments would be slashed unless regulators allowed them to start charging over-the-top (OTT) rivals like WhatsApp for using their networks. WhatsApp was bought by Facebook last week for $US19 billion and provides free messaging services to its 450 million users. The rise of companies like it have helped cut revenues from phone calls and text messaging at traditional carriers. "The main problem we have as an industry is we have been unable to monetise this increased demand ... and [average revenue per user] has fallen over time," she said. I think the pace of change in our industry is relentless so clearly we can't afford to stand still. If we are not careful we could stand the risk of being totally disintermediated. She called on regulators to allow carriers to detect and charge OTT players when their services were being provided over the network. While Telstra has experimented with such moves, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission considers it to be anti-competitive. But Ms Chua ssaid the solution was not to simply levy companies like WhatsApp but to become their partners. "Our ambition must be to become the preferred network partners of customers and OTT players," she said. We must create sustainable revenue models. Her comments echoed those of Optus head of networks Vic McClelland who told The Australian Financial Review earlier this year the company was working to provide priority services at a cost for customers wanting better access to streaming video services like YouTube. The author travelled to Mobile World Congress courtesy of Huawei